Autumn Still Life

Осінній натюрморт

Year1993

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions61 × 69 cm

LocationPrivate collection

Pears, grapes, apricots and rose hips piled on a heavy embroidered towel against a cold blue ground — a characteristic example of what critics called Maksymenko's monumental treatment of the still life. Catalogue entry #259.

Image: reproduction sourced from kobzar.in.ua. This work is still in copyright — © the artist / rights holder. Shown for editorial and educational purposes; contact us for attribution or removal.

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About the Artist

Mykola Maksymenko

1924–2016

Mykola Maksymenko was a Ukrainian painter of still lifes and landscapes, People's Artist of Ukraine (1994) and a laureate of the Shevchenko National Prize for his cycle 'Landscapes of Ukraine'. Blinded in one eye as a front-line scout in 1943, he spent nearly seven decades painting the Polissia countryside around Zhytomyr in a dense, high-keyed impasto. The largest single collection of his work is held by the Zhytomyr Regional Museum of Local Lore.

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Movements

Post-Impressionism

Post-Impressionism (c. 1886–1905) was a French art movement that reacted against the limitations of Impressionism, favoring emotional expression, symbolic content, and structural order over realistic light depiction. Key artists included Cézanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Seurat, who used vivid, unnatural colors and thick paint application to create unique styles that paved the way for modern art. Key Characteristics Symbolic and Emotional Content: Pushing beyond the objective recording of nature to express subjective emotions and symbolic meaning. Structural Order: A move away from fleeting moments toward, as Paul Cézanne aimed, making of Impressionism "something solid and durable, like the art of the museums". Vivid, Non-Naturalistic Color: Using color for emotional or decorative impact rather than just representing natural light. Distinctive Techniques: Examples include Seurat's Pointillism (tiny, systematic dots of color) and Van Gogh's expressive, swirling brushwork.

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Also part of

Realism

Related Works

1975

Spring in the Bee-garden

Painted hives stand under a cherry tree in full blossom, the whole surface built from short loaded strokes of pink, blue and acid green. Catalogue entry #86 in the artist's 2007 monograph.

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2002

Autumn in Blossoms

A late, almost hallucinatory bouquet of pale chrysanthemums crowding over a table of fruit and painted ceramics, made when the artist was seventy-seven. Catalogue entry #283.

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1897

Portrait of Ivan Franko

Ivan Trush

A finely rendered portrait of the Ukrainian writer Ivan Franko.

1905

Evening Sun

Ivan Trush

A landscape capturing the warm glow of the setting sun and Trush's love of atmospheric light.