For decades, the Luxembourg artist Paul de Pidoll (1882-1954) painted still lifes with antique ceramics. In addition to his well-known woodcuts and occasional portraits or depictions of the castle ruins in Bourscheid, his skilful naturalistic depictions often include arrangements of antique vessels. The oil painting Still Life with Black Jug from 1950 is one of these variations, in which the same objects occasionally appear as set pieces.

He paints compilations of various ancient vessels such as lekythoi and oenochoes, in very static and self-contained compositions. They are painted in different colours and show remnants of black and white ground painting, but without motifs. The combination of these pieces seems random and without any obvious connection. The arrangement rests on a massive block of roughly cut natural stone, which in turn rests on a smooth slab of wood. This double pedestal of stone and wood presents the central object in a monumental way. The artist's signature in the centre of the wooden surface also has the effect of an inscription. In this way, antique ceramics are elevated in a sacred way to the status of a monument.

Born in Luxembourg as Paul-François-Charles, baron de Pidoll de Quintenbach, de Pidoll was considered one of the few 'professional' artists in the country, but after completing his studies in Berlin, the artist lived mainly in France throughout his life and changed his name to Paul de Pidoll during the First World War. He exhibited successfully at the Salon of the Cercle Artistique in Luxembourg and the Salon des Artistes Français in Paris. Thanks to his second wife, Marie Dambrine, the MNAHA has received a small part of his artistic legacy, in addition to the Bibliothèque française. Several members of the old Lorraine Pidoll family were artists, and his father, Charles de Pidoll de Quintenbach, is also represented in the museum's collection.

Text | CC BY-NC | Michelle Kleyr