Still life, two glazed earthenware pots.

François Bonvin's still life of two glazed earthenware pots belongs to his lifelong commitment to the modest, unspectacular still life in the tradition of Chardin — a commitment maintained in the face of the more fashionable still-life subjects of his contemporaries. Bonvin was one of the great exponents of the French Realist still life, and his preference for simple kitchen ceramics over elaborate flowers-and-game arrangements reflected his aesthetic philosophy: the beauty of ordinary things observed with patient attention. Two glazed pots — their surfaces reflecting light, their forms quietly resonant — were subject enough.

The handling is deliberately quiet: a dark ground, two ceramic forms illuminated from one side, the glazed surfaces rendered with careful attention to the way the glaze modifies and reflects light differently from matte surfaces. Bonvin's color is restrained — warm ochres and grey-greens — the technical virtuosity concealed within apparent simplicity.