258
Jane Piper
(American, 1916-1991)
Still Life, circa early 1960s
Estimate: $5,000-$8,000
Sold
$7,500
Live Auction
What Do You See? The Collection of Sidney Rothberg, Part IV
Location
Philadelphia
Size
32 x 40 in. (81.3 x 101.6cm)
Description
Jane Piper
(American, 1916-1991)
Still Life, circa early 1960s
oil on canvas
signed Jane Piper (lower right); located and dated on stretcher
32 x 40 in. (81.3 x 101.6cm)
The Collection of Sidney Rothberg, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
This lot is located in Philadelphia.
Condition
Framed: 33 x 41 inches.The unlined canvas is in generally very good original condition, with no sign of inpainting as seen under UV light. Scattered spots of surface soiling apparent throughout. Two lines of craquelure to top right corner. Two small spots of loss - one to periwinkle shape close to top edge, near right corner; the other in the lilac background, near center. Additional images available upon request.
Signature
signed Jane Piper (lower right); located and dated on stretcher
Provenance
We wish to thank Mr. Bill Scott for his kind assistance in cataloguing the present lot. Provenance:Art Fighting AIDS: to benefit ActionAIDS, BEBASHI, and Philadelphia Health Alternatives, Port of History Museum, Philadelphia, October 13, 1987.Acquired directly from the above.Exhibition:"Jane Piper," Wayne Art Center, Pennsylvania, December 7-21, 1969.Lot Essay:A student of Arthur B. Carles, Jane Piper ranks among Philadelphia’s most accomplished modern painters and is widely recognized as the most daring colorist of her generation. Celebrated for her bold, abstracted still lifes, Piper channeled the energy and structure of Cézanne while forging a distinctly personal visual language. As one critic observed following her death in 1991, Piper “worked within a relatively narrow aesthetic range. She was interested in spatial organization and in creating space through color.”Piper’s work occupies a compelling space between figuration and abstraction, marked by her fearless use of color and form. In the present work, her signature palette—dominated by vivid yellows, oranges, and greens—evokes her emotional response to nature’s abundance, reimagined here within a domestic interior. A glossy layer of white acrylic serves as negative space, lending the composition a luminous openness. This technique, inspired by Matisse’s oil paintings, allows her colors to breathe and her forms to pulse with life.Infused with both discipline and spontaneity, Piper’s still lifes do more than depict—they vibrate with rhythm and feeling. Her compositions remind us that modernism, at its best, can transform the ordinary into the ecstatic.