19th and Early 20th Century Sculpture

The composition shows various objects set against an indefinite background: a sea shell, a mandolin, a simple jug, a fruit dish with grapes and a slice of melon, a Graeco-Italic vase, a plate with slices of melon and watermelon, three peaches. In the foreground, next to a clarinet, a dove stands on some sheets of music, at the back we see a book in a small basket. Although the depicted objects might suggest that this picture is an allegory of the five senses, this is not the case, there is rather something classically Mediterranean about it, inter alia also the light colour scale. The composition is a distant echo of similar depictions by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso.

This was the painter's style around the year 1940.

Preservation: Good. Cleaned in 1983 by Kemal Selmanović.
Provenance: Presented to the Narodna galerija in 1942 by the Italian occupation authority of the province; confirmation of the inventorisation of the painting dated 16 April 1943, old Inv. No. 1860; 1952–1983 on loan to the Moderna galerija, Ljubljana.
Exhibitions: 1983, Ljubljana, No. 105; 1985, Belgrade No. 60; 1987, Belgrade-Zagreb-Ljubljana, no number; 1989, Ljubljana, No. 71.
Lit.: Zeri [& Rozman] 1983, p. 171, Cat. and Fig. No. 105; World Masters 1987, p. 98, Fig. on p. 99 (text Jure Mikuž); Zeri and Rozman 1989, p. 157, Cat. No. 71, Fig. 69.