This document compares and contrasts two still life paintings - Anne Vallayer-Coster's 1817 oil painting "Still Life with Lobster" and Kwame Miranda's 2012 picture "Still Life of Fruits". Both works depict food in a realistic style through the use of warm colors and lighting. While Vallayer-Coster's painting has a dark background highlighting the red lobster, Miranda's features bright fruit on a gold-textured wall. Both compositions are balanced and use color and light to make the food appear tactile.

1. Still Life
Kwame Miranda
Arts Appreciation
1301-6430

2. Still life of Fruits by Kwame
Miranda

3. • Anne Vallayer-Coster (1744-1818)
Anne Vallayer-Coster was an 18th century
French painter who achived fame and
recognition very early in her careerand was
admitted into the orestigious recognision
society Academie Royale de Peinture et de
Sculpture in 1770 at the age of 26.
She learnt painting not from any formal
school but from her Dad, a botanist
Madeleine Basseport, and a celebrated
marine painter Joseph Vernet.
She led a very dignified and hard working
life.
Occasionally, she attempted other genres
and realised that her success was limited.
She died in 1818 at the age of 84 after
haven painted more than 120 still lifes
always with her distcinctive coloristic
brilliance.

4. What is Still Life?
What is still life?
A still life painting or photograph is the
study of inanimate objects frequenlty
referred to as “nature morte.”
These objects are typically those of
everyday and includes plants, fruit,
vegetables, dishes, skulls etc.
Still life’s may be classified in four groups:
1. Flower pieces,
2. Animal Pieces,
3. Breakfast or Banquet pieces and finally
4. Vanitas.

5. Vase of Flowers 1780
• Vallayer-Coster painted
more than 120 flower
still life’s just like this
one.
• She managed to capture
brilliant distinctive
colors in her still life
paintings.
• She was able to balance
very vivid hues with
remarkable success

6. Still Life with Seashells and Corals 1769
This painting has been noted as one of her most accomplished works.

7. Still Life with Lobsters 1817
This painting has been known to be her last painting.
In this painting, she managed to sum up her career which depicted most of her previous subject which she donated to the
restored King Louis XVIII.

8. Time Period and Historical
Atmosphere?
Before the French Revolution, Vallayer-Coster
lived in the French court enjoying the patronage
of Marie- Antoinette.
With the reign of Terror in 1793, the ancient
regime that had supported her up to this point
disappeared.
Her reputation suffered without her court
connections and little is known of her after this
period.
In 1817 she made a come back with her old
subject matter Still Life with Lobster in the Paris
Salon.
This piece actually belonged to Louis XVIII after
he was restored to the French throne in 1814.
.

9. Still Life with Lobster 1817
Geographical Location & Culture
• This work was
painted in the court
of the French King
Louis XVI by Anna
Vallayer-Coster.
• This is an Oil on
Canvas painting with
original dimensions
of 27 ¾ X 35 ¼.

10. Still Life with Lobster 1817
Style and Theme
• In this painting,
Vallayer-Coster uses
light to focus our
attention on the
delicious red lobster in
the foreground.
• She is very lush in her
brushwork which gives
one a sense of
luminosity that we can
almost feel the
painting.

11. Still Life with Lobster 1817
Style and Theme
• The painting is very balanced.
• Her use of warm colors makes
the Lobster very real giving
them tactile and sensual
appeal.
• She crates space and depth
perspective by means of planes
and color, which are freely
associated and at the same
time contrasting and
compared.
• This picture has some rich
texture with great sense of
tonal harmony.

12. Still Life of Fruits 2012
• The great use of light
and color makes the
fruits a focal point of
this picture.
• The contrasting warm
colors of the apple,
aubergine, and
different grapes
contrast so well with
the wall and the table.
• The light on the wall
also makes the fruits
very real.

13. Still Life of Fruits 2012
• The fall of light on
the wall brings out
the gold which gives
the picture a rich
texture.
• The bowl is in an
angle and yet the
picture is still
balanced.

14. Compare and Contrast
Anna Vallayer-Coster Kwame Miranda
Oil on Canvas 1817 Picture 2012
Both works are Still life. One is Oil on Canvas and the other is a Picture. They are
both very representational of the real food item.

15. Compare and Contrast
Anna Vallayer-Coster Kwame Miranda
Oil on Canvas 1817 Picture 2012
Still Life with Lobster has a very warm background with high contrast of dark
background with the red lobster. Still Life with Fruits has a very high and rich textured
gold and red background with very bright colors of fruits. In both painting, color and
Light brings out the realism of the picture. Both pictures are very balanced and
symmetrical with great tonal quality making them to be very appealing to the mouth.

16. MLA: Sayre, Henry A world of Art. New Jersey: Pearson
Education, 2010. Print.
MLA: http://www.timetrips.co.uk/still_life_history.htm
MLA: http://
www.visual-arts-cork.com/genres/still-life-painting.htm
MLA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Vallayer-Coster