SALMON FOR SUPPER

Lucky us in London-we get to see some of the gems of the Oskar Reinhart Collection in Winterthur-the first time such a major group of works has ever been allowed out of Switzerland..and now gracing the walls of the Courtauld. Reinhart (1885-1965) came from a wealthy Swiss trading family who preferred art to business. Goya, Courbet, Toulouse Lautrec, Monet, Cezanne just for starters. Until quite recently this collection, like the Barnes in Philadelphia or the Frick in New York, was not allowed to travel, at its owner’s request. Now that this statute has expired, it is possible to see Goya’s extraordinary still life of three chunks of bleeding, fat salmon steaks from 1812. It’s worth the visit just for this astonishing study of flesh and fat. The curators tell us that the work belongs to a group of 12 still lifes painted by Goya during the Peninsular War (1807-14) which was fought between Goya’s native Spain. Portugal and Britain against the occupying forces of Napoleon Bonaparte. Did Goya choose to paint still life- a potentially neutral subject-at a time of political upheaval? Is this an allegory for war- the oozing bloody crimson pigment as a symbol of bloodshed in the brutality of battle? Maybe…but one thing’s for sure: this is a work which stops you in your tracks.

Luis Egidio Melendez, Still Life with Salmon, Lemon and three Vessels, 1772, Prado

Seeing Goya’s masterpiece, reminded me of this stunning work by Melendez at the Prado….