Still Life
Artist
William Michael Harnett
(American, 1848 - 1892)
CultureAmerican
Date1877
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsOverall: 9 x 12 in. (22.9 x 30.5 cm)
Overall, Frame: 13 1/4 x 16 5/8 in. (33.7 x 42.2 cm)
Overall, Frame: 13 1/4 x 16 5/8 in. (33.7 x 42.2 cm)
InscribedSigned and dated lower right: W M HARNETT.;
1877 (initials arranged in a monogram)
Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.
Object number71.657
Collections
On View
On viewLabel TextWilliam Michael Harnett American, 1848–1892 Still Life, 1877 Oil on canvas Art for the home could be fancy or familiar. Some American still life painters specialized in hyper-realistic pictures of everyday objects like the pipe, matches, and tobacco tin seen here. William Harnett’s incredibly precise painting technique and his attention to the variety of materials and textures among these objects bring a high level of sophistication to this small work of art. The newspaper extending beyond the table and the smoldering ember in the pipe are masterful moments of this trompe l’oeil painting, the French term for “fool the eye.” Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.657 ProvenanceParke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., New York, sale no. 2531, Item no. 17, March 16, 1967; Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown, Massachusetts, 1969; Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., 1971. Exhibition History"Three Hundred Years of American Art in The Chrysler Museum," Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, Va., March 1 - July 4, 1976. (Exh. cat. p. 117). "Hidden Treasures from The Chrysler Museum," The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Va., November 26, 1985 - January 5, 1986. "William M. Harnett," The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, N.Y., March 14 - June 14, 1992; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Tex., July 18 - October 18, 1992; The Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, Calif., November 14, 1992 - February 14, 1993; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., March 14 - June 13, 1993. (Exh. cat. no. 5). "Reopening of the Joan P. Brock Galleries," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., Opening in March of 2008. "American Treasures at the Willoughby-Baylor House," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, January 2 - December 1, 2013. Published ReferencesAlfred Frankenstein, _After the Hunt: William Harnett and Other American Still Life Painters, 1870-1900_ (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969), 166, no. 21B. Dennis R. Anderson, _Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum_, exh. cat., Norfolk, Va., 1975, 117. _The Chrysler Museum: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Norfolk, Virginia_. Norfolk: Chrysler Museum, 1982, 87. ISBN: 0940744376 Jefferson C. Harrison, _The Chrysler Museum Handbook of the European and American Collections: Selected Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings_ (Norfolk: The Chrysler Museum, 1991), 137, no. 108. ISBN: 0-940744-59-7, 0-940744-62-7 Doreen Bolger, Marc Simpson, and John Wilmerding, _William M. Harnett_, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, N.Y., Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Tex., and The Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, Calif., 1992, 4, 153, no. 5. ISBN: 0810934108, 0883600692 Martha N. Hagood and Jefferson C. Harrison, _American Art at the Chrysler Museum: Selected Paintings, Sculpture, and Drawings_ (Norfolk, Va.: Chrysler Museum of Art, 2005), 92-93, no. 54. ISBN: 0-940744-71-6 Jeff Harrison, _Collecting with Vision: Treasures From the Chrysler Museum of Art_ (London: D. Giles Ltd., 2007), 65, fig. 69. ISBN: 978-0-940744-72-1 Ross Barrett, _Harnett's Habit: Still Life Painting and Smoking Culture in the Gilded Age_, American Art- Smithsonian American Art Museum, (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press in Association with the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2019), Vol. 33, No.2, p. 70, fig. 8.
