Surprised by Still Life at the High

My friend Susan and I took an afternoon to see Dutch Art in a Global Age at Atlanta's High Museum. She's a painter; I'm a lifelong amateur cartoonist. She likes color; I like character. So I'm surprised to report that I responded most strongly to examples of a genre that has always puzzled me before, the still life.

[Photo: Susan with a vase of flowers; Selfie with fruit and flies.]

I learned from this exhibit that the genre of still life was born in the Netherlands during the 17th century when Dutch ships were returning home from all over the world laden with riches. The objects display the art patron's imports -- typically citrus from Spain, strong drink from Italy, tobacco from North America, plus silver and coffee from South America. So these paintings do in fact tell us a bit about the characters of the people who paid for them.

The artist, meanwhile, is displaying both his ingenuity, arranging objects to look as if they had not been arranged, and his skill in creating life-like images.

Eyeing example after example was a bit like playing that kind of puzzle where you look for hidden objects. Expect a wine glass so clear you might not see it at first glance. Expect china with its own intricate pattern. I soon learned to expect at least one little creature crawling or flying.

I usually linger over portraits and depictions of cities. Compared to the sharpness and humor of the little still lives, the energy was diffused in group portraits and street scenes.

Two Rembrandt sketches did excite me. They're pencil or charcoal, the size of postcards. One was a self-portrait, with Rembrandt looking cocky. The other is a landscape, wetland in the foreground, country lane and windmill beyond, all summoned to the imagination by just a couple of elaborated horizontal lines.