Kitchen Still Life
Still Life with Fruit depicts a table still life scene (presumably) in a kitchen. A crisp white table cloth is laid unequally over a dark oval shaped wooden table which is complete with an assortment of vegetables and fruit, such as lettuces, onions, leeks and fennels in the forefront of the painting, and a woven basket and ceramic water-jug in the mid to background. The painting itself is characterised by bold, earthy and warm tones, such as ochres, reds, blues, greens and browns, in addition to brighter and more vibrant colours, such as yellows and reds. Benois’ style is markedly impressionistic; there are clear brush strokes throughout the painting and the objects present are clearly outlined to help demarcate and delineate their structure. The scene itself is very structured and there is a certain air of plenty; each object is carefully positioned on the table as if in preparation of a meal, or as the display of spoils from an early morning trip to the local market.
Nadia Benois, the mother of actor Peter Ustinov, was one of Russian Imperial Theatre’s finest artists who emigrated and made a career as theatre and film set designer, and worked with the Royal Ballet in London.
She was born Nadezhda Leontievna Benois on 17th May 1896 in St. Petersburg, Russia. Her father, named Leonti (Louis) Benois, was the owner of the famous Leonardo Da Vinci painting Madonna Benois; he was an architect of Russian, French and Italian ancestry who designed and built several key landmarks in St. Petersburg. Her mother was of Ethiopian Royal ancestry, and the Benois family lived in a grand mansion built by her architect grandfather, Nikolai Benois, near the Imperial Mariinsky Opera House in St. Petersburg.
Benois was brought up in a highly cultural environment; she began her studies in art under her uncle Alexandre Benois, who had an art studio. She graduated from the St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts and worked for the Imperial Mariinsky Opera House in St. Petersburg. In 1916, she married a Russian-German pilot Iona (Jona) von Ustinov (nicknamed Klop) and they emigrated to London, England, in 1920, where their son, Peter Ustinov, was born in 1921.
Benois made a career as a ballet and opera set designer with the “Russian Seasons” produced by the impresario Sergei Diaghilev. From 1930s, she collaborated with Marie Rambert and the Rambert Dance company at the Duchess Theatre in London, where she produced her acclaimed design for ballet Dark Elegies. She later worked with the Royal Ballet on productions of ballets by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. She was a costume designer for two films directed by her son Peter Ustinov: Vice Versa (1948) and Private Angelo (1949). Benois was also a distinguished fine artist and participated in many art exhibitions in London and Paris between 1920 and 1930.
