Last week I finally completed the reproduction of Emilie Preyer’s “Pflaumen und Aprikosen” on a wood panel (See previous post on priming). Here’s the finished version:
Panel painting, I discovered, is trickier than a canvas because, despite the priming and the sanding, it was still smooth and the paint didn’t move as freely as I’d wished. For that reason, the first layer proved tricky. The second layer, however, was simpler and I was able to effectively fill in the details (wish I was better at leaves though).
I also happened to wonder why she picked these particular fruits and why the colours look so great together, and thats when I made the startling discovery that they appear on opposite sides of the colour wheel!
Its no wonder that the two fruits balanced each other off beautifully.
Emilie Preyer (1849- 1930) was born in Dusseldorf (later a part of unified Germany under the Prussian empire) and was part of the Dusseldorf School of Painting. Under the guidance and apprenticeship of her father, she had completed her private training as a painter. Since women were not allowed in universities everywhere, she trained under her father as an unofficial student at the Düsseldorf Royal Academy of Art and under the history painter Heinrich Mücke and the landscape painter Hans Gude.
The work of Preyer bears a stark resemblance to the School of Still life painters back in the Netherlands. Perhaps this can be explained by the fact that, early on, the coast, culture and population of Holland had exerted a great attraction on German painters of the Düsseldorf School. In addition to museum visits, the quiet Dutch landscape and the North Sea coast made a fairly affordable study trip. The industrialization was not yet so advanced there, much original and a romantic landscape were to be discovered, because Holland was since the 17th century an almost untouched area, with picturesque windmills and a picturesque dune coast. There soon came to be professional and friendly contacts between Dutch artists and Dusseldorf painters.
Emilie Preyer also embarked on such study trips, to Dresden and Holland. Her artistic reputation consolidated internationally. Preyer’s style was characterized by a harmonious combination of colors and the exact detail realism of the natural elements, a characteristic of Golden Age Dutch painting.
“Plums and Apricots” by Preyer depicts the fruit in a decayed state. The wilting leaves, chewed plums and infected apricots bare an uncanny resemblance to elements of dutch still life painting. See for example, this painting by Pieter Claesz (Dutch; 1598-1660):
At first glance, the still life seems to represent a grand buffet, an assortment of culinary delights. On closer inspection however, it becomes obvious that the food on the table is not quite as it appears. The apples, for example, have been bitten into by a friendly neighbourhood insect. Almost all the food as been partially eaten and abandoned, a sense of foreboding sets in. The pie has been left to rot, the plate appears to be teetering on the edge of the table. The wine is half drunk. The glass is upturned. The bread is partially rotten.
These elements are characteristic of dutch golden age painting. The Dutch Republic in the seventeenth century enjoyed the fruits of the vast exploits and trade arrangements of the Dutch East India Company, and while the dutch enjoyed the newly acquired wealth and prosperity, the still life painters preferred to stand back and warn the wider public that all riches and materialistic pleasures were fleeting, and all good things will eventually come to an end. In an almost prophetic way, they predicted the eventual decline of the dutch republic. Their still life paintings in this way, displayed the impermanence of material pleasures.
Unlike most painters, Emilie enjoyed international success. Many of her paintings found their way into private collections at home and abroad, in the USA. Some of her works are also represented in museums such as the Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio, the New York Metropolitan Museum or the Picture Gallery in Philadelphia.
On September 23, 1930 Emilie Preyer died after a short illness and was buried in the family grave on the Düsseldorf Nordfriedhof. She is now regarded as one of the biggest names in still life painting, alongside other major female still life artists like Clara Peeters, Rachel Ruysch and Judith Leyster.
Here are some of her sketches, paintings and watercolours:
Thank you for reading!
-Niharika
nii studio 
