Still Life
- Artist: Giorgio Morandi
- Date: 1946
- Medium: Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 375 x 457 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “Still Life” by Giorgio Morandi, painted in 1946 with oil on canvas. Morandi kept a stock of simple vases, bottles and jars in his studio, and here he places them in a quiet, almost sculptural arrangement. The palette is earthy and muted—greys, creams, pale yellow, and a touch of mauve—reflecting the light of his native Bologna in northern Italy. Through repeated studies of the same objects, Morandi erases their domestic purpose and gives them an abstract, timeless quality. The brushwork is thin and wet‑on‑wet, creating subtle layers that catch light. The work was presented by Studio d’Arte Palma in Rome in 1947, and it sits in a frame with gilded details. It’s a quiet study of stillness, color, and the quiet drama of everyday objects.
See it in person
Still Life is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
