Oil on canvas, 1953. 865x1020 mm; 34x40 inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower right recto, and counter signed, titled and dated in oil, verso.
At the age of only 15, Peterdi exhibited his paintings at the Ernst Museum in Budapest. That same year he won the prestigious Prix de Rome for painting and continued his studies at the Academia delle Belle Arti before moving to Paris. Settling in the United States in 1939, his first American solo exhibition of paintings opened later that year at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York. While maintaining his activity in Atelier 17, in 1948 Peterdi began teaching at the Brooklyn Museum School of Art, organizing its graphic arts workshop. This position gave way to his post as associate professor of art at Hunter College (1952-60), his teaching career culminating with the art faculty at the Yale School of Art (1960-87).
With exception to his foreboding war imagery, Peterdi's art often evokes themes of nature, landscape and elemental forces. Still Life exhilarates and captivates with its cool and warm colors, frequently seen in Hayter's palette, and his gestural and abstracted qualities, repeatedly associated with the Abstract Expressionists, that recall at once Peterdi's treatment of the painting imbued with his intalgio printing techniques.
