Still life with a mortar

This particularly accomplished still life illustrates Agard's mastery in representing Provençal interiors at the beginning of the 20th century. In an intimate and silent composition, a stone mortar and its pestle occupy the centre, surrounded by scattered garlic cloves, halves of lemon, a bottle of olive oil, and a plate with a blue rim. In the background, a massive sideboard and objects made of earthenware or metal appear in a diffuse, slightly misty 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 a bygone daily life. Indeed, Jules Agard is a Provençal painter, an attentive student of southern light, known for his rural landscapes of the Crau and the Berre pond, as well as for some interior compositions and still lifes imbued with sobriety. He founded around him a sort of "peasant/regional school, " sometimes called the "School of Grans, " bringing together agricultural artists who share the same attachment to the land (names like Jules Leydier or Paul Décombis). Oil on canvas signed at the bottom centre and dated 1915 (note an old restoration approximately at the centre of the canvas, see photo of the reverse).