Back to basics

There are two things that gave me the inspiration for this post, with an aside on a quote.

The first thing is that the above is a painting by, to me, an obscure French artist of the eighteenth century - Henri-Horace Roland de la Porte. It was painted in 1787 and is called The Small Collation. It was today's picture in my Year in Art diary. It's in the Louvre so he is probably rather more well-known to the art world than he is to me. But I did like it. There is something pure, simple, even fundamental about the choice of milk, bread, apples and cheese - plus the touch of something above the basic - the doughnut looking things on the left. The cake that Jill Dupleix thinks we should have from time to time. And aren't the glass and the carafe lovely? It's all so beautifully presented. Most of his paintings - well the still lifes which seems to be the majority of his output - are of simple basic things - bread, apples, eggs, wine, fruit ...

The other reason for focussing on these basics is that my lovely sister arrives from England tonight and we were out shopping for the basics for her - she will be staying in our little granny flat, so can self-cater. So we bought her bread, milk, butter and croissants for a touch of indulgence. She also has some home-made jam and marmalade, some muesli, tea and coffee, orange juice and eggs. We were thinking very hard about what the basics were that you might need - at least for breakfast.

But we could live off just those things in the painting couldn't we? And many people in the world do. We've got protein, carbohydrate, vitamins and minerals in there. If you have milk, bread, apples and cheese you can keep yourself going for quite some time, and you can cook a wide variety of things. Maybe that's a challenge I should set myself - what could I do with them? Eggs would be a useful addition though and maybe if you really are talking about the basic foods eggs should be included. If you have a cow (or other milk-giving animal such as a goat), some chickens and a small patch of ground in which to grow some grain or potatoes you should be able to sustain yourself I guess. A fruit tree is a luxury I suppose, but there is plenty of fruit growing wild in most places, if not all.

And the beautiful presentation of these simple things makes it so much more appetising does it not? I am not very good at presenting food - at plating (I feel another post coming on there). I try but it never looks as good as in the photos in those glossy cookbooks. And even knowing that they spend ages on those photographs and they are not entirely real doesn't help, because if you go to a posh, or even not so posh, restaurant, the food is always so beautifully presented. So it can obviously be done. Not by me though. Now I don't like milk - it makes me feel sick but the beauty of the milk in that painting could almost tempt me. Even though I am not very good at the presentation I do try to make the food look tempting - not on individual plates but by serving the food in attractive dishes in as attractive a manner as I can manage. It makes it special somehow - as does dining out of doors.

"The first wealth is health"

And finally that quote. My art diary always has a quote to go with the painting of the day and today's was yet another of Ralph Waldo Emerson's who seems to be a favourite of the publisher for some reason. I couldn't agree more with the sentiment, but looking at the picture I'm not so sure about the health aspects of the food on display. Yes they are nourishing and will keep you alive - but healthy? Too much cholesterol and carbohydrate really for a healthy diet. But then they wouldn't have known about those things back in the eighteenth century.

A lovely, and rather apt, surprise of a painting for the day though. Which is why I share it with you here.