Oil paint on canvas
Tate Modern
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/giorgio-morandi-1660" aria-label="More by Giorgio Morandi" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Giorgio Morandi</a>
Still Life
Presented by Studio d'Arte Palma, Rome 1947
bowl
emotions, concepts and ideas
formal qualities
objects
purity
vase
vessels and containers
<p>Morandi’s still life features a number of household objects. He often included the same selection of familiar items in his works. He kept a supply of vases, bottles and jars in his studio to use in his still life paintings. In this work, the objects lose their domestic purpose, becoming sculptural objects. Through repeated studies of the same items, Morandi creates a sense of timelessness. His use of earthy and muted colours was inspired by his native Bologna in northern Italy. This connects the artist's paintings to his own life and surroundings.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2020</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
12 November 2005 – 23 April 2006
2006-04-23
12 November 2005 – 23 April 2005
2005-04-23
2005-11-12
Lowry Museum (Salford, UK)
2005-11-12
The Art of White
Loan-out
21 January 2009 – 13 September 2009
2009-09-13
15 October 2008 – 13 September 2009
2009-09-13
2008-10-15
Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art (London, UK)
2009-01-21
Reciprocal loan
Loan-out
15 May 2010 – 26 September 2010
2010-09-26
15 May 2010 – 26 September 2010
2010-09-26
2010-05-15
Tate St Ives (St Ives, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/stives/
2010-05-15
Object
Collection based display
1 December 2011 – 4 March 2012
2012-03-04
1 December 2011 – 4 March 2012
2012-03-04
2011-12-01
Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (Middlesbrough, UK)
http://www.visitmima.com/
2011-12-01
Between Dimensions: the representation of the object
Loan-out
20 November 2015 – 12 March 2017
2017-03-12
20 November 2015 – 14 February 2016
2016-02-14
2015-11-20
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
23 March 2016 – 11 September 2016
2016-09-11
2016-03-23
MMK 2 Museum für Modern Kunst (Frankfurt, Germany)
22 October 2016 – 12 March 2017
2017-03-12
2016-10-22
Centre Pompidou, Metz (Metz, France)
2015-11-20
An Imagined Museum: works from the Pompidou, Tate and MMK collections
Exhibition
20 November 2015 – 27 March 2017
2017-03-27
23 March 2016 – 11 September 2016
2016-09-11
2016-03-23
MMK 2 Museum für Modern Kunst (Frankfurt, Germany)
21 October 2016 – 27 March 2017
2017-03-27
2016-10-21
Centre Pompidou, Metz (Metz, France)
2015-11-20
An Imagined Museum: works from the Pompidou, Tate and MMK collections
Loan-out
26 April 2016
26 April 2016
2016-04-26
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2016-04-26
Studio Practice
Collection based display
Still Life
support: 375 × 457 mm
frame: 533 × 613 × 65 mm
Presented by Studio d'Arte Palma, Rome 1947
<div class="text">
<p>
<i>Still Life</i> is an oil painting on canvas by the Italian painter Giorgio MorandiIn this work, Morandi uses a muted colour palette that ranges from light and medium grey to cream white, beige, pale yellow and mauve. The ball-shaped container in the front row at the lower left corner of the painting has a top section with yellow grooves and a bottom section with white grooves. The cup in the centre of the composition has a red brim and the bowl on the right side has purple grooves. <i>Still Life</i> is inscribed with the artist’s signature at the bottom right of the canvas.</p>
<p>
<i>Still Life</i> was made in Bologna in 1946. The canvas was prepared with a white ground layer and an underdrawing made with graphite is visible around the central vase. The oil paint was then applied in thin layers, wet on wet, with lively brushstrokes. The painting has a wooden frame with gilded details. In 1947 a photograph of the painting was sent to Tate that shows an inscription on the reverse of the frame detailing the painting’s title in Italian (‘Natura morta’) and the year it was made (see Alley 1981, p.540).</p>
<p>Morandi kept a supply of vases, bottles and jars in his studio, which he used as models for many of his still life paintings in a variety of arrangements. In a letter dated 7 July 1953 the artist wrote that there were ‘several variants of the present work and the same objects also appear in other pictures’ (quoted in Alley 1981, p.540). The first of the still lifes to feature several of the same objects in a similar arrangement was made in 1936, but the most closely related works date from the period 1945–7, although no two of these are exactly the same (see Alley 1981, p.540).</p>
<p>Morandi was born in Bologna, where he studied between 1907 and 1913. He became familiar with the work of the French impressionist painters Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) and Claude Monet (1840–1926), as well as that of Paul Cézanne (1839–1906), through exhibitions in Venice and Rome. His work was also influenced by the Italian Renaissance painters Giotto (c.1266/7–1337), Piero della Francesca (c.1415–1492) and Paulo Uccello (1397–1475).</p>
<p>
<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>Lamberto Vitali, <i>Giorgio Morandi: Pittore</i>, Milan 1965, reproduced pl.168.<br/>Lamberto Vitali, <i>Morandi: Catalogo Generale 1913–47</i>, Milan 1977, reproduced no.514.<br/>Ronald Alley, <i>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery’s Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</i>, London 1981, p.540, reproduced p.540.</p>
<p>Natasha Adamou<br/>May 2016</p>
<p>
<i>Supported by Christie’s.</i>
</p>
</div>

Summary
2018-11-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="text">
<p>Morandi’s still life features a number of household objects. He often included the same selection of familiar items in his works. He kept a supply of vases, bottles and jars in his studio to use in his still life paintings. In this work, the objects lose their domestic purpose, becoming sculptural objects. Through repeated studies of the same items, Morandi creates a sense of timelessness. His use of earthy and muted colours was inspired by his native Bologna in northern Italy. This connects the artist's paintings to his own life and surroundings.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2020-08-21T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<strong>Giorgio Morandi</strong> 1890-1964
<p>
<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/morandi-still-life-n05782" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05782</span></a> <strong>Still Life</strong> 1946
</p><p>
Inscribed 'Morandi' b.r.<br/>
Oil on canvas, 14 3/4 x 18 (37.5 x 45.5)<br/>
Presented by the Studio d'Arte Palma 1947<br/>
<em>Prov:</em> Studio d'Arte Palma, Rome (purchased from the artist 1947)<br/>
<em>Exh:</em> <em>Modern Italian Art</em>, Tate Gallery, June-July 1954 (not in catalogue)<br/>
<em>Lit:</em> Lamberto Vitali, <em>Morandi: Catalogo Generale 1913-47</em> (Milan 1977), No.514, n.p. repr. as 'Natura Morta' 1946<br/>
<em>Repr:</em> Lamberto Vitali, <em>Giorgio Morandi Pittore</em> (Milan 1965), pl.168; <em>Studio International</em>, CLXXXVIII, 1974, p.171
</p><p>
The title 'Natura Morta' and date 1946 are inscribed on the back of a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/photograph" title="Glossary definition for 'Photograph'"><span>photograph</span></a> sent to the Trustees in 1947, when the gift was being considered.
</p><p>
Morandi kept a stock of bottles and jars which he used for his <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/still-life" title="Glossary definition for 'Still life'"><span>still-life</span></a> pictures in a variety of combinations and arrangements. He wrote that there were several variants of the present work and the same objects also appear in other pictures. (Letter of 7 July 1953).
</p><p>
The first picture in which several of these objects appear in a similar arrangement was made as early as 1936 (Vitali No.210), but the most closely related still lifes all date from the period 1945-7 (Vitali Nos.489-93 of 1945, 515-23 of 1946 and 575-7 of 1947). All include some or all of the same objects in similar groupings, but no two are exactly the same.
</p><p>
<strong>Published in:</strong><br/>
Ronald Alley, <em>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</em>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, p.540, reproduced p.540
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</p>
Catalogue entry
2004-09-14T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
bowl emotions, concepts and ideas formal qualities objects purity vase vessels and containers