1986 - Nature morte au pot à lait      65 x 50 cm (26 x 20 in.)
          Still Life with Milk Jug            E 401 15 P

Even  MAX-AGOSTINI's still lifes has a very alive quality - the artist, before starting his canvas, looked around his environment for familiar objects (dishes, wine bottles, tablecloths, etc.) and they appear in various paintings. This white ceramic milk jug was a part of these. Max and his wife, Pierrette, had found it in a second-hand shop in Versailles. It was lined with pewter and had a lid with a spout that Max took off, preferring the more simple design of the rim. The wine came from the Gironde region, from a winery owner, Robert Desgraupes, a friend of a friend, who regularly shipped the ordered cases to them. The chair and small table with a drawer were always part of Max's studio in Allauch. As for the red pot, I had found it in a hardware store in Aix-en-Provence specifically for his still lifes because Max liked this "red poppy" shade, even inside. He used it in many other paintings as well. The painter's genius was not only to put this odd assortment together, turning it into a harmonious composition, but even more, as in this work, to give the illusion that a human being had just left the scene one minute before!

M�me les natures mortes de MAX-AGOSTINI gardent un aspect tr�s vivant - l'artiste, avant de commencer sa toile, cherchait autour de lui des objets familiers (assiettes, bouteilles de vin, nappes, etc.), et on les retrouve dans diff�rents tableaux. Ce pot � lait en c�ramique blanche en faisait partie. Max et sa compagne, Pierrette, l'avaient trouv� dans un bric-�-brac � Versailles. Il �tait doubl� d'�tain et avait un couvercle-verseur que Max a enlev�, pr�f�rant la ligne plus simple du rebord. Le vin provenait de Gironde, d'un propri�taire r�coltant de leurs amis, Robert Desgraupes, � qui ils commandaient r�guli�rement des caisses qu'il leur exp�diait. La chaise et la petite table � tiroir restaient en permanence dans l'atelier de Max � Allauch. Quant � la marmite rouge, je l'avais trouv�e dans une quincaillerie � Aix-en-Provence sp�cifiquement pour ses natures mortes car Max aimait bien ce ton "coquelicot", m�me � l'int�rieur. On la retrouve aussi dans de nombreuses toiles. Le g�nie du peintre �tait non seulement de r�unir tous ces objets h�t�roclites pour en faire une composition harmonieuse, mais en plus, comme ici, de donner l'impression qu'une pr�sence humaine vient tout juste de quitter la sc�ne!