Still life with a Lantern

This sensually intense still life comes from the politically turbulent year when the communist regime came to power in Czechoslovakia. In the following years, this change significantly influenced the art scene, including Filla’s work, in which we can feel a sort of balancing and re-evaluation of his previous artistic style. However, in 1948, Filla continued his established artistic practice, which combined modernist approaches, folk vivacity and deep knowledge of tradition. Gradually, he moved away from cubism; he stopped deforming the objects in the presented still life and left them their shapes and plasticity. One could even consider that the artist looked at cubism through the eyes of his previous, early period when he was a member of the Osma group. Thematically, he developed several motifs simultaneously – a cycle of expressionist heads, symbolic-allegorical scenes, figurative scenes and still lifes. He often painted at the Peruc chateau, therefore, many of his works feature the same objects: baroque glasses, jugs, saucers or lanterns. The lantern used repeatedly had a special meaning for Filla. It nostalgically referred to life in the 18th and 19th centuries, to the silence of the chateau chambers, in the darkness of which they shine. Here, too, its light spreads over objects and the surroundings. On the table, shown from a slight perspective, Filla placed, beside the lantern, a tray of fruit, a bottle, a vase of flowers, and a wreath of onions. The colour palette is expressive and contrasting, with predominating blue, ochre, green and purple tones. Filla used much more here than in other works from the same period the colour as a vehicle of expression. The outlines of the individual objects are also a significant element, rendered not only in the typical black but also in green and purple, which softened the scene and connected it into one ingeniously constructed composition. On the stretcher is the artist’s No. 61/48 in a circle, i.e. the evidence number and the year of execution. The work comes from an important Prague collection. Authenticity has been verified by the Filla Foundation, and the painting will be listed in the upcoming inventory of Filla’s work. Assessed during consultations by PhDr. R. Michalová, Ph.D., and Mgr. T. Mátl Donné. The expertise of PhDr. K. Srp is attached.