Lithograph #43

William Samuel Schwartz

Despite the lack of color in Schwartz’s still life of fruit, the appearance of ripeness is achieved in the heavy roundness of the fruits popping forward off of the patterned cloth beneath them. The viewer could nearly reach out and pluck a grape from its stem.

Schwartz’s work emphasized the solid, weighty existence of his subjects, grounding each person, object, or cityscape into a three dimensional world that mirrors our own but through a lens of fantasy, emphasizing contour and movement. This composition - deceptively simple - is as alive as his portraits of lounging nudes or dramatic, vibrant landscapes.