- William Harnett
William Michael Harnett (
August 10 ,1848 –October 29 ,1892 ) was an Irish-American painter who practiced atrompe l'oeil (literally, "fool the eye") style of realistic painting. Hisstill life s of ordinary objects, arranged on a ledge or hanging from a nail, are painted in such a way that the painting can be mistaken for the objects themselves.Biography
Harnett was born in
Clonakilty ,County Cork , Ireland during the time of the potato famine. Shortly after his birth his family emigrated to America, settling inPhiladelphia . Becoming a United States citizen in 1868, he made a living as a young man by engraving designs on table silver, while also taking night classes at thePennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and later, inNew York , atCooper Union and at theNational Academy of Design . His first known oil painting, a still life, dates from 1874.The style of trompe l'oeil painting that Harnett developed was distinctive and inspired many imitators,Frankenstein 1970, p. 56.] but it was not without precedent. A number of 17th century Dutch painters, Pieter Claesz. for instance, had specialized in tabletop still life of astonishing
verisimilitude .Raphaelle Peale , working in Philadelphia in the early 19th century, pioneered the form in America. What sets Harnett's work apart, besides his enormous skill, is his interest in depicting objects not usually made the subject of a painting.Harnett painted musical instruments, hanging game, and tankards, but also painted the unconventional "Golden Horseshoe" (1886), a single rusted horseshoe shown nailed to a board. He painted a casual jumble of second-hand books set on top of a crate, "Job Lot, Cheap" (1878), as well as firearms and even paper currency. His works sold well, but they were more likely to be found hanging in a tavern or a business office than in a museum, as they did not conform to contemporary notions of high art.
Overall, Harnett's work is most comparable to that of the slightly younger
John F. Peto . The two artists knew each other, and a comparison can be made between two paintings featuringviolin s. Harnett's "Music and Good Luck" from 1888 shows the violin hanging upright on a door with ornate hinges and with a slightly torn piece of sheet music behind it. The elements are arranged in a stable, deliberate manner. Peto's 1890 painting shows the violin hanging askew, as well as chipped and worn, with one string broken. The sheet music is dog-eared and torn around the edges, and placed haphazardly behind the instrument. The hinges are less ornate, and one is broken. Harnett's objects show signs of use but are well preserved, while Peto's more humble objects are nearly used up.Crippling
rheumatism plagued Harnett in his last years, reducing the number but not the quality of his paintings. [Frankenstein 1970, p. 92.] He died inNew York City in 1892. Other artists who painted similar compositions in Harnett's wake include his contemporaryJohn Haberle and successors such asOtis Kaye andJefferson David Chalfant .Collections
Harnett's work is in collections in the
Albright-Knox Art Gallery (Buffalo, New York), theAmon Carter Museum (Texas), theArt Institute of Chicago , theBrooklyn Museum of Art , theCarnegie Museum of Art (Pittsburgh), theCincinnati Art Museum , theCleveland Museum of Art , theDetroit Institute of Arts , theFine Arts Museums of San Francisco ,Harvard University Art Museums , theHigh Museum of Art (Atlanta, Georgia), theHonolulu Academy of Arts , theJoslyn Art Museum (Nebraska), theLos Angeles County Museum , theMetropolitan Museum of Art , theNational Gallery of Art (Washington D.C.), theNational Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), thePhiladelphia Museum of Art , theSan Diego Museum of Art (California), Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum (Madrid), theToledo Museum of Art (Ohio), and theWadsworth Atheneum (Connecticut), among others.Notes
References
*Frankenstein, Alfred. "The Reality of Appearance: The Trompe l'Oeil Tradition in American Painting". Greenwich, Connecticut: New York Graphic Society Ltd, 1970. ISBN 0-8212-0357-6
Further reading
*Frankenstein, Alfred. "After the Hunt: William Harnett and other American Still Life Painters 1870-1900". Berkeley: University of California Press, 1953.
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.