Photographed by Scott Wolff. Scanned from a slide. Color corrected by Pat Cagney.

Still Life with Fruit

Artist Severin Roesen (American (born Germany), 1816 - 1872)

CultureAmerican

Dateca. 1859

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsOverall: 29 x 36 in. (73.7 x 91.4 cm)
Overall, Frame: 38 1/2 x 45 1/4 in. (97.8 x 114.9 cm)

InscribedSigned lower edge, at center: Roesen

Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

Object number71.698

On View

Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 103

DescriptionOil on canvas painting of a still life with fruit, a wicker basket, a small blue and white porcelain bowl, and a glass goblet full of white wine on a marble tabletop. Grapes, pears, peaches, lemons, blackberries and other fruits are depicted: the food overfills a basket in the center of the painting. Trees and a darkening sky fill the background.

Label TextWerner Hunzinger American, 1816—1861 Still Life, 1850 Oil on canvas Severin Roesen American, 1816—1872 Still Life with Fruit, ca. 1859 Oil on canvas Still Life proved a popular subject in the pre-Civil War United States as a way of celebrating the country’s vast wealth and resources as well as its growing artistic sophistication. Painters Werner Hunzinger and Severin Roesen both immigrated to the United States from Germany around 1848. They specialized in still life subjects that drew inspiration from the technical precision and flourish of European old masters and appealed to American audiences’ growing taste for material and artistic luxury. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.2108 & 71.698 ProvenanceSloan and Roman, New York, 1968; Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.; Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. to the Chrysler Museum, 1971. Exhibition History"Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum," Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, Va., March 1 - July 4, 1976. "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. "American Appetite: Selections from the Chrysler Museum of Art," Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach, VA, February 6 - June 6, 2021.Published ReferencesDennis R. Anderson, _Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum_, exh. cat., Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Va., 1975, 137. _The Chrysler Museum: Selections from the Permanent Collection _ (Norfolk, Va., 1982), 85. ISBN: 0-940744-37-6 Judith O'Toole, "The Cover," _JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association_ 256, no. 19 (November 21, 1986): 2641, cover. Judith Hansen O'Toole, _Severin Roesen_ (Cranbury, N.J.: Associated University Presses, 1992), 44, fig. 17, plate 20. ISBN: 0838751849 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), 74-75, no. 40. ISBN: 0-940744-71-6