- Artist
- John Bratby 1928–1992
- Medium
- Oil paint on hardboard
- Dimensions
- Support: 1314 × 921 mm
frame: 1686 × 1278 × 135 mm - Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Presented by the Contemporary Art Society 1956
- Reference
- T00104
Catalogue entry
T00104 STILL LIFE WITH CHIP FRIER 1954
Not inscribed.
Oil on hardboard, 51 3/4×36 1/4 (131·5×92).
Presented by the Contemporary Art Society 1956.
Coll: Purchased by the C.A.S. from the Beaux Arts Gallery 1954.
Exh: Beaux Arts Gallery, September–October 1954 (1); Venice Biennale, 1956 (British Pavilion, 21).
Repr: Encounter, III, No.15, 1954, facing p.62; Clutton-Brock, 1961, pl.2 (in colour).
The artist wrote of this work (n.d., August 1956) that ‘it was done with the majority of my Table Top Still Lifes during the summer of 1954 [either in July or August], just after the conclusion of my studies at the Royal College of Arts and Crafts [i.e. the Royal College of Art]. I was working, during that summer, at my wife's father's home [at Greenwich]. There I had a room on the top floor which did service as a studio. For models for my series of Table Top Still Lifes, I used the same table every time, and eating equipment from the kitchen of the house. The works were therefore absolutely contrived and artificially set up.... The Chip Frier was... put there [on the chair-back] for the purpose of improving the composition of the picture. So the work is not a direct painting of the table top in a kitchen found just as the cook left it.’ The picture was painted in three stages, beginning with the floor and table top which was thinly brushed in with dark brown paint and left to dry overnight. Objects were then added in white or light colours to form a vivid contrast with the dark table top. The chairs, dog and upper background came next, and the ‘scissors’ section was left almost to last.
Published in:
Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, I
Explore
- architecture(30,960)
- domestic(1,795)
- furnishings(3,081)
- can opener(2)
- coffee pot(18)
- colander(4)
- frying pan(14)
- glass(153)
- mincer(2)
- serving dish(17)
- sieve(3)
- tea strainer(1)
- scissors(29)