1858
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Still Life with Pipe and Matches is a 1858 unspecified by Alexandre Gabriel Decamps, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a pipe resting on a table, its white bowl carved like a face, a silver band glinting below it. Matches, a knife, and a scrap of paper lie nearby. The pipe’s cord dangles off the edge, its tassel almost touching the floor. Decamps smoked this kind of pipe himself. The cord wasn’t just pretty—it kept the expensive bowl from falling if the stem broke. Every scratch on the silver and every fray in the tassel is painted with care, turning everyday things into something worth looking at. If you like how he makes ordinary objects feel important, check out the subject *france, 19th century, mod euro*.
The artist was a smoker. In this composition the place of honor is given to a pipe made in Austria around the middle of the 19th century. It is made of precious materials—meerschaum, silver, amber, horn, or lacquered wood—that are carefully fashioned, all lovingly rendered by the artist. The cord with a tassel (perhaps horsehair) is not just a decorative element, it is a security measure in case the precious bowl of the pipe becomes detached from the pipe stem. The pipe is surrounded by ordinary smoker's accessories—a cigar case, a snuffbox, and a match holder in porcelain—all placed on a…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps was a French painter noted for his Orientalist works.
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