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Lot Essay
Born in Warsaw, Poland, John Graham painted Still Life in 1927, the same year in which he attained United States citizenship and the first museum acquired his work (Blue Bay, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.) Still Life is the only known painting on glass by the artist and a rare and striking table-top composition.
In the painting, Graham has transcribed all but the last stanza of his poem "C'est Moi," which originally appeared in his volume of poems in French and English entitled Have It! The poem begins, “Listen to me, the barbarian/I am the genius of three arts/And I will take you/Into the bazaars of the universe.” The inclusion of this inscription, which manifests Graham's public tendency towards self-aggrandizement, makes Still Life a highly personal work and partial self-portrait.
In the painting, Graham has transcribed all but the last stanza of his poem "C'est Moi," which originally appeared in his volume of poems in French and English entitled Have It! The poem begins, “Listen to me, the barbarian/I am the genius of three arts/And I will take you/Into the bazaars of the universe.” The inclusion of this inscription, which manifests Graham's public tendency towards self-aggrandizement, makes Still Life a highly personal work and partial self-portrait.