Still Life With Cigarette

At the threshold between rooms, receding to a corner, we see flowers, a curtain, and a cigarette burning on an ash tray. Some objects appear to be there simply for their decorative patterns. Rites uses non-naturalistic colors like bright reds and blues among the wood to showcase the emotion in the room, rather than a realistic still-life. Rites uses a painterly approach: very clear brushstrokes and a lack of blending of most colors and shadows, which only remotely resemble the shape of an object. He uses blue splotches throughout the entire painting, to create flower petals as well as an unconsciously melancholic feeling of an empty apartment and a cigarette burning itself out in the midline.

About the Artist

Unfortunately, little information is known about this artist. He was born in 1900 in Ithaca, NY, the son of a renowned engineer who had become wealthy from his patents. Rites’ parents separated, however, and his father died while Marion was still a teenager. He attended Ithaca High School and graduated from Cornell University in 1922. There are indications that he studied art in Paris and painted in Touraine, the Riviera, and Northern Africa (“Paintings”). His works were exhibited in 1932 at the Galerie de la Renaissance and received favorable mention for their cosmopolitanism and “painterly temperament” (Dictionaire). Rites was influenced by the French Impressionist Paul Cézanne, including his bold brushstrokes; use of muted and earthy tones, greens and blues; and his thick application of paint. Along with another artist, David Dorfman, Rites illustrated a 1941 WPA children’s book titled Tales of Old New York, published by the New York Board of Education. Little is known about this artist beyond the works he left behind. His date of death is also unknown. 4 works at the U.S. General Services Administration. 2 images at FAP.

Works Consulted: “Paintings of Marion B. Rites, Former Ithaca Resident, Are Favorably Mentioned Abroad,” Ithaca Journal 19 Dec. 1933: 7; Dictionaire Biographique des Artistes Contemporains (1934).

Rites, Marion B[uchanse], 1900 - ?

Loucks, Paige (description)

Harrington, Gwenyth (biography)

Helquist, Morgan (photography)

New Deal Museum, Mount Morris NY

Object #FA 816

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Oil on canvas

Canvas: 24 x 29 1/2 in.
Frame: 30 3/4 x 36 1/2 in.