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Still life

Still life
 1830

Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
46.5 × 35.5 cm
Inscription
inscribed in black paint l.c.r.: Geo Lance. 1830.
Accession Number
p.308.11-1
Department
International Painting
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, 1883
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Gallery location
19th Century European Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
About this work

The English painter George Lance was a great admirer of seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish still life. Initially trained as a history painter, he was, like his contemporary Charles Darwin (1809–82) obsessed with natural history, undertaking many courses in anatomical dissection. In keeping with the scientific trends of his day, Lance was less interested in the moral elements of Dutch still lifes than in their empirical observation of nature. Lance became the most successful painter of this genre in Britain. He was courted by the great houses of England, and painted the prize fruit and vegetables of Woburn and Blenheim.

Subjects (general)
Animals Still Lifes
Subjects (specific)
bird (animal) corpses (bodies) feathers (animal components) game pieces (still lifes) jugs (vessels) pigeons (general term)
Provenance
With Alexander Fletcher (framer-gilder-dealer-restorer), Melbourne, by 1883; from whom purchased for the NGV, 1883.

Exhibited Travelling Exhibition No. 1, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1950 (n.n.); Exhibition of Oil Paintings by British and European Artists, Centre for Adult Education, Melbourne, 1954, no.6.


Frame
Reproduction, 2010, based on a late 18th century - early 19th century European frame

Frame

The former framing of the painting was a re-worked nineteenth century frame which had been given a 1920’s stippled surface.
The frame used as a prototype for the new frame was a smaller scale, simple scotia frame found on Duparc, Portrait of an old lady, (551-4).
The frame was made in Brisbane, finished to the gilded stage and toned at the NGV.
It was fitted to the painting in January 2010.
The reframing of Still life coincided with the cleaning and restoration of the painting in 2008.

Framemaker
Reproduction - commissioned by the NGV
Date
2010
Materials

timber, composition and gold leaf