Reflections in a Samovar, c.1923
Oil on canvas, 30 x 36”
Signed lower left
Rook was a landscape painter. Here, for a change, he painted in the comfort of his Old Lyme home. His meticulous rendering makes no attempt to fool the eye, but he alludes to trompe l’oeil deceptions with the door, a prop that is used often in that mode to "push" objects forward.
The things here, from diverse cultures, were the artist’s own, so they speak of the sophistication of the man. Might the spilling grapes seen directly across from the tilted cover imply that nature and culture can achieve, at best, only a delicate balance?