The Art of American Still Life ─ Audubon to Warhol

Inventing American Still Life, 1800?1960, offers a fresh look at the myriad ways that American artists of the 19th and 20th centuries?both familiar names and recently rediscovered artists?approached the subject of still-life painting. A stunning array of works, some never before published, are beautifully illustrated in more than 250 color images. Four thematic essays address the connections between still life and other aspects of American culture, including literature and philosophy; the intersection of still-life painting, natural-history illustration, and commercial photography; the Philadelphia region’s defining impact and lasting influence on American still life; and the reception of still life by American critics and art historians from its earliest days to the present. Among the works featured are Raphaelle Peale’s celebrated Blackberries (c. 1813), Severin Roesen’s majestic Flower Still Life with Bird’s Nest (1853), William Michael Harnett’s landmark trompe l’oeil painting After the Hunt (1885), and Charles Sheeler’s modern masterpiece Rolling Power (1939).

Mark D. Mitchell is associate curator of American art, Philadelphia Museum of Art. Bill Brown is Karla Scherer Distinguished Service Professor in American Culture, University of Chicago. Katie A. Pfohl is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University. Carol Troyen is Kristin and Roger Servison Curator Emerita of American Paintings, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.