Artwork
Still Life with Cantaloupe
Still Life with Cantaloupe is an oil painting by the American Impressionist artist William Mason Brown. It dates from 1890 and is held in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
As a work of the still-life genre, it isolates the fruit as the central subject, allowing the artist to explore its texture, color, and three-dimensional form.
The painting titled Still Life with Cantaloupe shows a single ripe cantaloupe placed on a surface, rendered in oil on canvas. As a work of the still-life genre, it isolates the fruit as the central subject, allowing the artist to explore its texture, color, and three-dimensional form. The composition reflects the nineteenth-century American interest in domestic abundance, presenting an ordinary food item with careful attention to light and shading.
Measuring 35.5 cm by 46.0 cm, the work was created in the United States in 1890 and is part of the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.
Technique & Style
Still Life with Cantaloupe is executed in oil paint on canvas, a standard support for late nineteenth-century American still-life painting. The work measures 35.5 by 46.0 centimeters, a relatively modest horizontal format suited to a tabletop arrangement.
Painted in 1890 by William Mason Brown, the picture belongs to the still-life genre and is held in the Cleveland Museum of Art. The combination of oil medium and canvas support is consistent with Brown's broader production of fruit and melon subjects during this period, though the sources provide no further detail on his specific brushwork, palette, or compositional handling.
History & Provenance
Still Life with Cantaloupe was painted by William Mason Brown in 1890, executed in oil on canvas in the United States. The work subsequently entered the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art, where it is catalogued as accession number 1969.20. The painting measures 35.5 by 46.0 centimeters.
The sources do not record when or how the painting was acquired by the museum, any prior owners, or whether it was commissioned or produced independently by the artist.
Overview
William Mason Brown's Still Life with Cantaloupe, an oil painting from 1890, exemplifies the still life genre. This work is part of the collection at The Cleveland Museum of Art. It showcases the artist's detailed approach to depicting everyday objects, rendered with oil paint on canvas.
The piece offers a glimpse into late 19th-century American still life traditions, focusing on domestic arrangements and natural forms.
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Artist & collection
Artist
An American still-life painter of the late 1800s, William Mason Brown focused on everyday fruit and objects with quiet precision.
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Still Life with Cantaloupe
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