1891
oil
canvas
From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago
Just Dessert is a 1891 oil by William Michael Harnett, a American Impressionism work, held at Art Institute of Chicago.
You see a table with food and drinks on it, like a fancy dessert spread. The artist arranged exotic items like Maraschino liqueur and Smyrna figs with everyday things like a copper pitcher. This mix of items is interesting because it shows how the artist liked to combine different things in his still lifes. Check out the work of William Michael Harnett for more like this.
One of only three works William Michael Harnett painted in the year before his death, Just Dessert offers the viewer a display of foodstuffs sumptuously arranged on a marble surface. The traditional tabletop composition is one that Harnett often employed in his still lifes. In Just Dessert , the exotic clashes with the quotidian—Maraschino liqueur, half a coconut, and Smyrna figs rest alongside a copper pitcher, pewter tankard, and ginger jar. Small crumbs of cork are visible on the grapes and fig seeds are smashed on the side of the wooden box, indicating that the dessert has been eaten, as…
Private collection, Philadelphia; Downtown Gallery, New York City, by 1942; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1942.
WI, Milwaukee Art Institute, Nineteenth Century American Masters , Feb. 20–Mar. 28, 1948, no. 22. New York, Downtown Gallery, Harnett Centennial Exhibition, Apr. 13–May 1, 1948, cat. 18. IL, Durand Art Institute, Lake Forest College, A Century of American Painting: Masterpieces Loaned by The Art Institute of Chicago , June 10–16, 1957, no. 11. Art Institute of Chicago, Two Centuries of American Art, 1750-1950 , Oct. 1, 1959–Jan. 10, 1960, no cat. [downloadable checklist available]. Art Institute of Chicago, Junior Museum: America and the Artist , Aug. 1, 1975–July 9, 1978, no cat. New York,…
Read the full account in the museum source.
William Michael Harnett (August 10, 1848 – October 29, 1892) was an American painter known for his trompe-l'œil still lifes of ordinary objects.
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