Still Life with Oranges, 1924

In the years 1924/25, Herbert Boeckl (1894–1966) intensely explored the genre of still lifes in his paintings. In the years 1921/22 – as evidenced in Still Life with Dead Crow, Still Life with Fruits and Fish and Still Life with Dead Pidgeon – complex compositions had served as meditations about impermanence, whereas in 1924 the painter began further developing his still lifes towards formal clarification. In 1924, Boeckl preferred combinations of oranges, eggs, limes, peaches, bowls and jugs. The relations between the spherical fruits vary in the compositions. These formal experiments in Boeckl’s paintings are accompanied by a pastose paint application and black contours, while his works on paper give a clarified impression. At the VI. Kunstschau des Bundes österreichischer Künstler [6th Art Exhibition of the Union of Austrian Artists] in April 1925, Boeckl presented his Large Sicilian Landscape as well as two still lifes, which illustrates the great importance that the painter attached to still lifes in this period.

Text Leopold Museum