Still Life with the Toledo Blade
Artist: William Michael Harnett (American (born Ireland), 1848-1892)
Date: 1886
Dimensions:
22 1/8 x 26 3/16 in. (56.1 x 66.5 cm)
Medium: oil on canvas
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Roy Rike
Object number: 1962.2
Label Text:The newspaper seems to project out of this painting, and the matches seem three-dimensional enough to pick up off the table. With an uncanny sense of illusion, William Harnett established a type of “fool-the-eye” (tromp l’oeil) still life painting that proved incredibly popular with his middleclass clientele.
He painted Still Life with the Toledo Blade for Isaac N. Reed, a Toledo druggist whose business often took him to New York where Harnett worked. The books, pipe, candle, violin, and a folded newspaper are favorite props in Harnett’s works. The newspaper is the September 17, 1886 issue of the Toledo Blade; later renamed The Blade, it remains Toledo’s daily paper.
He painted Still Life with the Toledo Blade for Isaac N. Reed, a Toledo druggist whose business often took him to New York where Harnett worked. The books, pipe, candle, violin, and a folded newspaper are favorite props in Harnett’s works. The newspaper is the September 17, 1886 issue of the Toledo Blade; later renamed The Blade, it remains Toledo’s daily paper.
Not on view
In Collection(s)