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拍品專文
Painted in 1954, Nature morte au verre is a striking still life that marks the culmination of de Staël's artistic quest for a means of fusing abstract expressionism with figurative representation. Filled with light, the painting shows de Staël reacting to the intense contrasts brought into relief by the Mediterranean sun, a factor that had fuelled the landscapes of Sicily to which this picture bears a striking resemblance. De Staël has allowed the objects in Nature morte au verre to stand out against the contrasting background, itself dominated by a strong horizon reminiscent of landscape. Indeed, this imbues the objects with a quiet and understated monumentality, filling them with a powerful sense of meaning. This still life appears as a revelation, de Staël managing to convey the dignity and beauty of these everyday objects in a manner reminiscent of Chardin. There is an air of quiet contemplation in Nature morte au verre that perfectly encapsulates his role as a modern heir to Vermeer.
During the last two years of his life, de Staël succeeded in creating a synthesis between the visual idiom of his abstraction and the direct representation of the visual world around us. In Nature morte au verre, the objects of the still life have been rendered with an eloquent economy of means. There is an almost formal appearance in the painting, which is constructed using only a few colours and a few elements and which allows it to be appreciated not only in terms of its content but also in its own right, in terms of its painterly appearance. Its beauty does not rely on its references to the world beyond it, instead allowing it to exist as an object in its own right. By portraying a real view of the world through the means and visual language of abstraction, de Staël was pioneering a new third way for art, embracing the modern and current vitality of the Abstract Expressionists while also harnessing the visual glories of the figurative world. In this way, he succeeded in creating 'paintings of essential truth which will be major events in themselves, outside all the known rules' (de Staël, letter to Jacques Dubourg, December 1954, reproduced in Nicolas de Staël, exh. cat., Paris & London 1981, p. 19).
During the last two years of his life, de Staël succeeded in creating a synthesis between the visual idiom of his abstraction and the direct representation of the visual world around us. In Nature morte au verre, the objects of the still life have been rendered with an eloquent economy of means. There is an almost formal appearance in the painting, which is constructed using only a few colours and a few elements and which allows it to be appreciated not only in terms of its content but also in its own right, in terms of its painterly appearance. Its beauty does not rely on its references to the world beyond it, instead allowing it to exist as an object in its own right. By portraying a real view of the world through the means and visual language of abstraction, de Staël was pioneering a new third way for art, embracing the modern and current vitality of the Abstract Expressionists while also harnessing the visual glories of the figurative world. In this way, he succeeded in creating 'paintings of essential truth which will be major events in themselves, outside all the known rules' (de Staël, letter to Jacques Dubourg, December 1954, reproduced in Nicolas de Staël, exh. cat., Paris & London 1981, p. 19).