Still life paintings pursue the same goal as the style of impressionism generally – to capture the fleeting moment in its ephemeral beauty. Realists, for instance, used this genre to study manifestations of the laws of life, the life style and perceptions of certain TYPES of people. Impressionists, on the contrary, depicted…

more mundane objects as seen for the first time, they portrayed the occasional, unique, surface-deep qualities of things, the perceptions or impressions of the objects on the canvases. The first impression is short-lived and fleeting, and yet it’s the most lively and vivid, impossible to reveal through fine detalizations and accurate delicate brushwork. An object in impressionist still lifes does not stand out – it is woven into the environment it belongs to thus suggesting the integrity, and it is perceived in integrity with the atmosphere of the painting. You don’t remember the object in detail – you remember the impression it produces under certain circumstances. In their pursuit of capturing fleeting impressions of everyday life, the impressionists ruled out everything that evokes deeper emotions – the only thing you get is the beauty of a bouquet, but you don’t get a closer look. You don’t see the glass or the dress – just the patches of light and the vibration of colour they serve as the background for. No frowning, no contemplating on the frailty of life, no intellectual harassment allowed! The impressionist still lifes live up to the well-known observation by Blaise Pascal: “The art of still life is so mysterious – it makes you admire copies of those things you do not really admire in the original”.