Showa Vintage Fruit Still Life Art Glass

Japanese Showa Vintage｜Painted Art Glass with Fruit Still Life・Large Wood-Framed Glass Wall Panel

The subject is thoroughly appealing—a footed compote laden with fruit. At the center stands a white classical footed fruit vessel, its body bearing flower- and leaf-like decorative patterns; piled within are purple-red grapes, yellow and green pears, red fruits and more, each rendered in high-chroma blocks of color. The background makes generous use of lake blue, royal blue and deep blue, with sweeping horizontal curves that lend this otherwise still composition a rippling, water-like rhythm. Most interesting is the painting technique. Rather than pursuing the light and shadow of traditional realist still life, it separates each area of color with dark outlines, so from a distance it resembles church stained glass or European stained glass work; up close, one senses the vivid colors particular to Showa-era Japanese Western-style decorative art. This blend of "Japanese making × Western decorative vocabulary" is itself very much of the Showa era. (Some wear to the wooden frame.)