Still life (Waterlilies), Adolf de Meyer

Archive Label 2003: Demeyer Watson was born of a wealthy, but not titled, French family. He married a woman said at the time to be the daughter of either King Edward VII or Kaiser Wilhelm and became Baron de Meyer when the King of Saxony ennobled him at King Edward’s suggestion. His wife Olga encouraged him to study art. The work of Whistler, Sargent and the French Symbolists, admired by de Meyer, influenced his photographic style. While primarily a studio portraitist for the pre-World War I rich and famous, he also made luxurious photographs of still-lifes. All of de Meyer’s work, portraits and still-lifes, were elaborately staged. In pictorialist manner he used a soft-focus yet pinpoint-sharp lens, but added the element of strong artificial light. De Meyer was not interested in gritty reality. Typical of his romantic style, the surfaces of Still-life (water lilies floating in a bowl) shine, sparkle, and reflect. The lily blossoms seem suspended within a ring barely recognizable as a glass bowl containing water. Subtle and delicate gray tones surround this floating world and provided another reflective surface. One of de Meyer’s techniques was to spill buckets of water on marble floors to create a higher level of gloss.