Still Life with Fish and Oysters

A member of a distinguished Neapolitan family of still life painters, Recco’s artistic development was influenced by both Roman Caraveggesque and Spanish still life painting. This fish still life makes an immediate impression for its multiplicity of glistening tones, their intensities heightened by the contrast with the dark interior’s neutral values. Recco had the capacity to reconcile the humblest subjects and a strong naturalistic bias with a sense of intimacy and compositional restraint. With their warm colouring and expressive use of paint, his still lifes reveal a deep feeling for everyday life.