Large Still Life With Mortar By Jules Agard (1871-1943)

This particularly accomplished still life illustrates Agard's mastery in depicting Provençal interiors at the beginning of the 20th century. In an intimate and silent composition, a stone mortar and pestle occupy the center, surrounded by scattered garlic cloves, lemon halves, a bottle of olive oil, and a blue-rimmed plate. In the background, a massive sideboard and earthenware or metal objects appear in a diffuse, slightly hazy light, creating a subtle contrast between material, texture, and depth. The scene evokes the heart of traditional Provençal cuisine: simplicity, authenticity, and the calm atmosphere of everyday life from a bygone era. Indeed, Jules Agard was a Provençal painter, an attentive student of southern light, known for his rural landscapes of the Crau and the Étang de Berre, as well as for a few interior compositions and still lifes imbued with a sense of restraint.
He founded around himself a kind of "peasant/regional school," sometimes called the "Grans School," bringing together agricultural artists who shared the same attachment to the land (names such as Jules Leydier and Paul Décombis).

Oil on canvas, signed in the lower center and dated 1915 (note an old restoration approximately in the center of the canvas, see photo of the reverse).

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