Week 9 – February 2, 2026: Severin Roesen, Still Life, Grapes, Peaches, Blueberries, Raspberries and Apples & Justin Favela, Peaches

Severin Roesen who fled from Germany to the United States in 1848 to avoid prosecution for fraudulent bankruptcy, was one of the most successful flower painters of the 1850s. Previously he had been a porcelain dealer. He was a prolific painter, and there are three to four hundred works that are extant, but only twenty are dated, which makes this work at our museum significant. All of his works are filled with fruit, flowers, or a combination of both. The various fruits are painted in a precise manner with great attention to detail. They are brightly lit from one side and are located in a shallow space between the edge of a variegated marble table in the foreground and a blank wall behind. This meticulous detail, bright light, and shallow space force the viewer to pay attention to objects that would normally not be noticed in daily life.

Roesen’s works have been interpreted to be the ultimate embodiment of mid-century optimism, representing the richness and abundance of the land, and the profusion of God’s bounty in the New World. Conversely, while his work does resemble the still-life paintings of Dutch Masters in style and composition, such as the reflection of a window along the rim of the wineglass, it does not borrow from the memento mori tradition where the fleshy fruits show signs of transience through their decay. Rather Roesen’s green and purple grapes, apple, quince, peaches, black plums, gooseberries, and raspberries are ripe and luscious in their color, firmness, and fresh appearance, made even more suitable for eating by the glistening droplets of water painted sparingly on each fruit, and the blue gray tones of the cool marble table. Broken stems and shoots appear newly pruned with plump splinters. The long-stemmed wine glass is filled with the nectar that followed the treading of grapes after sowing.

Still Life 

The Still Life is commonly called Nature Morte. In the academic tradition, it was never considered suitable to be the primary focus of attention for an ambitious artist. Objects relegated to the bottom rung of the aesthetic ladder were considered “dead things” such as fruit, flowers, vegetables, tableware, dead game, cheese, bread, armor, shells, ceramic, silver, and glass. These are objects located in the domestic sphere, mundane activities necessary for life in contrast to the heroic exploits embodied in history painting, which was considered the most important subject for painting. It is little wonder then that women found an accepted place as still-life painters, for the home was their acknowledged realm. Exceptions do exist as male artists such as Severin Roesen and Raphaelle and James Peale achieved great reputations in still-life painting.

Even the painter of still life, whose highest ambition is to give a minute representation of every part of those low objects which he sets before him, deserves praise in proportion to his attainments; because no part of this excellent art, so much the ornament of polished life, is destitute of value and use. These, however, are by no means the views to which the mind of the student ought to be primarily directed.

Joshua Reynolds, 1770 Compare this “Still Life” expression Peaches, completed in 2016 by contemporary artist Justin Favela who reinterprets historical artworks in vibrant installations and artworks that put past and present into dialogue. Here, he recreates Raphaelle Peale’s iconic nineteenth-century still life painting Bowl of Peaches with hand-cut piñata paper, a medium that playfully challenges artistic hierarchies of fine art and craft.

Born approximately 150 years apart, both Roesen and Favela are known for their depictions of food, a subject rich with personal and political symbolism. While Roesen’s bounty of fruit signifies the prosperity of middle-class America, Favela’s still life conveys a uniquely Latinx perspective and embodies the challenges of poverty and immigrant farm workers.