Still Life—Strawberries, Nuts, &c.
1822
oil
panel
From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago
About the artist
1822
oil
panel
From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago
Still Life—Strawberries, Nuts, &c. is a 1822 oil by Raphaelle Peale, a American Folk Art work, held at Art Institute of Chicago.
You see a white plate piled with strawberries, walnuts, and a silver spoon, all sitting on a dark wooden table. This painting is one of the first still lifes made in America. The strawberries look so real you can almost smell them. The artist used tiny brushstrokes to show the fuzz on the berries and the shine on the metal. If you like how the light plays on the fruit, look up *chiaroscuro*.
A member of a prominent artistic family from Maryland and Pennsylvania, Raphaelle Peale was one of the first painters in the United States to specialize in still life. In this precisely arranged composition, he meticulously rendered the various surfaces and forms of fruits, nuts, and tableware. Influenced by 17th-century Dutch still lifes, Peale featured imported material goods, such as Chinese porcelain made for the American market, a luxury item symbolizing the increasing power and prosperity of the new nation. The large glass urn may hold strawberries grown out of season in greenhouses,…
Mr. Feldman, Philadelphia, by 1940. James Graham and Sons Gallery, New York, by 1941. Robert C. Graham (1913–1994) and Edith Graham (1917–2003; born Edith Altschul), New York, by 1946; sold to Marshall Field V and Jamee J. Field (1947–2020; born Jamee Beckwith Jacobs), Chicago, 1982 [on loan to the Art Institute, 1982–1991]; given by them to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1991.
New York, Museum of Modern Art, American Realists and Magic Realists , Feb. 10–Mar. 21, 1943, cat. 13; Buffalo, Albright Gallery, Apr. 5–May 5, 1943; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, July 1–30, 1943; San Francisco Museum of Art, Aug. 23–Sept. 19, 1943; Art Gallery of Toronto, Nov. 12–Dec. 19, 1943; Cleveland Museum of Art, Jan. 1–29, 1944. Milwaukee Art Center, Raphaelle Peale, Still Lifes and Portraits , Jan. 15–Feb. 15, 1959, cat. 4, as Still Life ; New York, M. Knoedler & Company, Mar. 2–31, 1959. Winston–Salem, NC, Public Library, A Rationale for Modern Art , Oct. 1–21, 1959, cat. 14; MO,…
Read the full account in the museum source.
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