Still Life with Dutch Jar and Bust of Dante
Artist
William Michael Harnett
(American, born in Ireland, 1848–1892)
Date1884
Mediumoil on wood panel
Dimensionscanvas: 38.4 × 31.9 cm (15 1/8 × 12 9/16 in.)
framed: 63.2 × 57 cm (24 7/8 × 22 7/16 in.)
framed: 63.2 × 57 cm (24 7/8 × 22 7/16 in.)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineStoddard Acquisition Fund
Object number2002.24
Label TextA pyramid of culture greets the viewer of this painting. Highly naturalistic representations of sheet music, books, artist’s tools, sculpture, and ceramics all come together to showcase William Michael Harnett’s skill as a painter of still life—and to perhaps act subtly as a manifesto for the validity of art itself. Harnett and his colleague John Frederick Peto absorbed the European tradition of still life from their studies in Germany, then brought it back home with them, where they delighted late nineteenth-century American audiences with sometimes elaborate, sometimes humble combinations of objects—all represented, as here, in great detail.ProvenanceSold by George Fryer, London, 1884; Private Collection, London, and by descent to the previous owner.On View
On view
