19th c. Still Life Art

In the 1800s a chromolithograph was a marvel, a painting reproduced in full color so faithfully that people framed them and treasured them as art in their own right. Found in Amiens and dating to the 19th century, it is a chromo of a laden dessert table, grapes and cake, a decanter and wine glasses, a compote heaped with little pastries, signed in the corner and set in a gilded frame. Each one was built up layer by painstaking layer, a separate stone cut for every color, which is why the best of them, like this richly laid table, still glow like the oil paintings they were made after. Sylvie hangs it in a dining room, a whole feast on the wall above the table.