Still Life with Oranges

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Still Life with Oranges

Artist Raphaelle Peale (American, 1774-1825)

Dateabout 1818

DimensionsFrame: 26 1/2 × 30 3/8 × 2 3/8 in. (67.3 × 77.2 × 6 cm)

Mediumoil on wood panel

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Florence Scott Libbey Bequest in Memory of her Father, Maurice A. Scott

Object number

1951.498

Not on View

Label TextRaphaelle Peale was the first American artist to specialize in still life paintings. The simple arrangement and realistic description of textures and light make this humble collection of food and drink a feast for the eyes. A soft but direct light accents the different surface textures and reflective qualities of the glass, ceramic glaze, waxy leaves, and orange rinds (the spiraling peel is perhaps a visual pun on his name). By setting the objects against a partially lit background, Peale enhanced their three-dimensionality and volume. The diagonal thrust of the twig and the various directions of the curling leaves also suggest depth. The realism recalls similar details in 17th-century Dutch still life paintings, examples of which Peale certainly saw exhibited in his native Philadelphia. Peale came from a distinguished family of artists. His father, painter Charles Willson Peale (1741–1827), established the first art gallery in the United States in 1782 and named several of his many sons and daughters for famous painters in the hopes that they would pursue art. Some did, including Raphaelle, Rembrandt, Titian, and Angelica Kauffmann Peale.Published ReferencesThe Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, no. 140, Dec. 1952, repr. cover.

"The Editor's Attic," Antiques, vol. 63, April 1953, p. 356, repr.

Comstock, Helen, "The Connoisseur in America," Connoisseur, vol. 132, no. 533, Nov. 1953, p. 139, repr. p. 136.

Slayman, James H., "The Age of Good Feeling," The Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 2, no. 2, Autumn 1959, p. 13-14, repr. p. 12.

Pierson, William H., Jr., and Martha Davidson, editors, Arts of the United States: A Pictorial Survey, New York, McGraw-Hill, 1960, no. 2829, p. 320, repr.

Larkin, O., Art and Life in America, New York, 1960, p. 112, pl. 3 (color).

A Guide to the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, 1966, repr.

Young, Mahonri Sharp, "From Howling Wilderness to Queensborough Bridge," Apollo, vol. 86, no. 70, Dec. 1967, p. 497.

Wilmerding, John, PItture Americana dell'Ottocento, Milano, 1967, p. 13, repr. (col.) p. 34, Tav. VIII.

Novak, B., American Painting of the Nineteenth Century, New York, 1969, p. 22, fig. 1-9.

Wilmerding, John, Audubon, Homer, Whistler and 19th Century America, New York, 1970, p. 5, repr. (col.) p. 26.

Flexner, J., Nineteenth Century American Painting, New York, 1970, repr. p. 193 (det.).

McClinton, Katharine Morrison, "The Dining Room Picture," Spinning Wheel, vol. 34, no. 3, April 1978, p. 23, repr.

Strickler, Susan E., "American Paintings at the Toledo Museum of Art," Antiques, vol. 116, no. 5, Nov. 1979, p. 1112, repr. (col.) pl. IV.

The Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, American Paintings, Toledo, 1979, pp. 89, 90, pl. 17.

Cikovsky, Nicolai, Jr., "The Still Lifes of Raphaelle Peale," Antiques, vol. 134, no. 5, Nov. 1988, pl. XIV, p. 1130 (col.).

Armstrong, Tom, "Folk, or Art? A Symposium," Antiques, vol. 135, no. 1, Jan. 1989, p. 284, pl. B (col.), p. 282.

Troyen, Carol, "Philadelphia: Raphaelle Peale Still Lifes," Burlington Magazine, vol. 131, no. 1031, Feb. 1989, pl. 179.

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 228, repr. (col.).

Wilmerding, John, Roy Lichtenstein: Still Lifes, New York, 2010, pp. 17-18, repr. (col.) p. 8, fig. 1.

Exhibition HistoryCincinnati, Cincinnati Art Museum, Paintings by the Peale Family, 1954, no. 64 (cat. by E. Dwight).

Milwaukee, Milwaukee Art Center, Raphaelle Peale, 1959, no. 21, repr. (cat. by. C. C. Sellers).

New York, Knoedler Gallery. New York, IBM Gallery of Science and Art, American Paintings from the Toledo Museum of Art, 1986.

Washington, National Gallery of Art; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of The Fine Arts, Raphaelle Peale Still Lifes, 1988-1989, no. 1, p. 126, repr. (col.) frontispiece and on the back cover, (col. det.).