Blossom and Decay, Frederick Stuart Church

Episode 280 (revised Episode 23). I’m David Cateforis with another Art Minute from the Spencer Museum of Art. You may not immediately notice it as you stroll through the Spencer's 19th century gallery, this little brown painting with a small burst of red. It depicts a solitary rose set next to what seems to be a loaf of pumpernickel bread wrapped in brown paper. But, if you look more closely at the large round object next to the scarlet flower, you’ll see that it’s actually the preserved head of a mummy, swathed in a crumbling veil. The american artist Frederick Stuart Church painted this peculiar image, entitled Blossom and Decay, working from actual objects in his studio. Church obtained the mummy’s head at a time when explorers had discovered new royal Egyptian tombs and were taking artifacts as souvenirs. The head appeared in several of Church’s paintings, usually juxtaposed with a delicate flower or a beautiful woman. In Blossom and Decay, the mummy’s head is both a reminder of death and a testament to Church’s belief in unseen forces and reincarnation. Placed next to a freshly picked rose, it reminds us of the fragility of human life, the transience of beauty, and the power of objects to evoke emotions. With thanks to Anna Smith for her text, from the Spencer Museum of Art, I’m David Cateforis.

Is this the first time you’ve seen a picture of a mummified head? Frederick Stuart Church created Blossom and Decay in 1878. As you can see, there is a dark, slightly unpleasant-looking object sitting to the left of a beautiful rose. This dark object looks similar to a seared loaf of bread, or perhaps a large, scorched potato, but on closer inspection it is actually a mummified head, partially wrapped in brown material. When Church painted Blossom and Decay, he used an actual mummified head as a model. He got the head from an explorer who stole it from an Egyptian tomb. If the painting is slightly above your eye level, it can be quite difficult to make out the head’s facial features due to the painting’s height and lighting, but if you look closely, you can see the darkened shapes of eye sockets, a nose, and a mouth which almost appears to be laughing. Church’s painting and etching styles are very distinctive, to the point that after barely a week of study I could recognize his work. He mostly made illustrations and etchings, although he has created a number of oil paintings. Most of these paintings depict women, sometimes near a stream. Almost all of his works involve animals, many of which have human characteristics. Blossom and Decay, among a few other head-and-flower pieces, seems to be one of the few exceptions to this pattern. But what is Frederick Church’s meaning in this painting? Why would anyone want to place a beautiful blossom and decayed head beside each other and preserve their image for all the world to see? I believe he is trying to depict how gossamer and fleeting things like life and beauty can be. Church wants you to appreciate your existence, which we almost never do, and just like Benjamin Franklin saying that death is one of the few things guaranteed in life, Frederick Church is saying that no matter how beautiful the blossom of your life is, it will decay, and he wants us to go out and enjoy it while it lasts. I think that Blossom and Decay is rather easy to overlook, but once I noticed it, I thought that it was really very striking. It is mostly brown with just a black section in the center, but the green-and-red of the rose contrast with each other against the black in a way that causes the green leaves to almost fade away into the black while the red petals appear brightly. The oil on canvas painting is slightly cracked and despite how small the cracks are, the white lines show up clearly, perhaps due to the absence of light colors in this painting. Frederick Stuart Church was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan during the year of 1842. His father was involved in law and Frederick served in the Civil War. Afterwards, he took art lessons at the Chicago Academy of Design and is sometimes confused with fellow artist Frederic Edwin Church. Frederick Stuart Church died in New York City in 1924. Blossom and Decay by Frederick Church may be an odd painting and it may be hard to find, but it is certainly worth a visit. After all, how many chances do you get to see a mummified head?