Love, Life, Death, and Desire: An Installation of the Center's Collections (Yale Center for British Art, 2020-10-01 - 2021-02-28)
Publications:
Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 216-217, N590.2 A83 (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
Stranover took enormous pains over this still life of both native and nonnative species of birds, as well as plants and a luxurious display of fruits, which fill and surround two baskets. As a symbol of abundance and prosperity, the nonnative fruits signal the artificial world of the hothouse used to force them to grow in the chilly English climate. The scarlet macaw and the yellow-naped amazon indicate the colonial mindset of English patrons who sought the flora and fauna of South America to display their prestige. There is also an undercurrent of transience in the overabundance of the fruit, as portrayed in the soon-to-ripen open cantaloupe and exploded pomegranate. Gallery label for Love, Life, Death, and Desire: An Installation of the Center's Collections (Yale Center for British Art, 2020-11-01 – 2021-02-28)