Thoughts on still life of cucumbers HL Batss

My first reaction: "How can somebody render cucumbers so well, and get the basics of perspective so wrong?"

This painting would make me crazy, because I can't stop mentally redrafting the box.

 

Watercolor, H L Batss. Could this be called Folk Art, Amateur? Set in Empire frame. Small square top nails holding it in frame. The name has been painted over a penciled signature. It might have been H L Bates. I do not think the scale is right for one thing.

 

6rivets, yes I agree about the scale - I am hitting and missing trying to figure this new way of posting on the new board. Sorry!

 

Maybe he/she was looking at a real box that was irregularly-shaped? If not, I totally agree that the perspective is way off.

 

The box screamed at me too

 

Well, Picasso never worried much about perspective!

Just claim Bates was influenced by Picasso

 

But Picasso (I'm thinking more Cezanne) consciously disregarded perspective. They knew how to draw perspective correctly, and then set that aside for their own aesthetic reasons. Pretty sure the pickle painter didn't have a choice.

 

Pretty sure the pickle painter didn't have a choice

Well, no. But it needed redeeming somehow.

And they do look like pickles, now you mention it.

 

H. L. Bates, pretty sure. Amateur, I would think, but not folk art. Nice old oak frame. Yeah, perspective (not scale) is off, so it would be hard to look at for a long time!

 

He was never allowed to study for the painter's guild because they could not stand the prospect of calling him Master Bates.