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| John Frederick Peto (1854 -1907) |
| A Gentleman's Still LIfe |
| Oil on board |
| 6 x 9 inches |
Provenance:
Private Collection, Pennsylvania
References:
William H. Gerdts, Painters of the Humble Truth: Masterpieces of American Still Life 1801-1939 (Columbia & London: University of Missouri Press, 1981)
Peter Hastings Falk, Who Was Who in American Art (Connecticut: Sound View Press, 1999)
Robert Hughes, American Visions: The Epic History of Art in America (Knopf, 1997)
John Frederick Peto is one of the most romantic and enigmatic figures in late nineteenth-century American art. In Alfred Frankenstein's publication, After the Hunt: William Michael Harnett and Other American Still Life Painters, 1870-1900, published in 1953, Peto is recognized as one of the most important American still life artists.
Peto may have acquired his interest in art from his father, Thomas H. Peto, who was a dealer in picture frames. By the mid-1870s, Peto was listed as an artist in the city of Philadelphia's directories, and in 1877 he enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts where he studied briefly with Thomas Eakins.
Peto's attraction to still-life painting is not surprising considering the strong tradition of this genre in Philadelphia where he was familiar with examples by other still life paintings by: The Peales, Severin Roesen, and John F. Francis. Perhaps the greatest influence on Peto's art was his friendship with William Michael Harnett, whom he met in Philadelphia before 1880. Although strongly influenced by Harnett, Peto developed his own distinctive singular style, using a more painterly technique with his trompe l'oiel subjects.
In a letter dated March 26, 1999 by still life expert William H. Gerdts, Gentleman's Still Life is described as "a very fine painting and a prime example of Peto's work - beautifully painted with the objects simply but carefully arranged - seemingly casual but actually well constructed - the sense of geometric balance of the two diagonals - the pipe bowl and the leaning book - evinces Peto at his finest".
Peto maintained various studios in Philadelphia over the next decades, and exhibited his work on occasion at the Academy. In 1887, while in Cincinnati working on a commission, Peto met Christine Pearl Smith, whom he married in June of that year. The couple settled in Philadelphia, but began to spend time in the resort community of Island Heights, New Jersey, where Peto a talented cornet player, performed for the Methodist camp meetings.
In 1889, Peto built a house and moved permanently to Island Heights, where he and Christine raised their only daughter, Helen. He continued to paint, and also took up photography. He ceased to exhibit his work in Philadelphia, preferring to show from time to time at the local drugstore in Island Heights.
Peto painted a variety of still-life subjects between 1889 up until the time of his death in 1907, including rack paintings and tabletop arrangements often including ordinary objects such as books, pipes, matches and candlesticks. It would be Peto's extraordinary ability to paint ordinary objects with his distinct artistic ability that would elevate him to a place among the very best American still life painters in history.
In 1950 the Brooklyn Museum held an exhibition of his works, and in 1983 the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. held a show of his paintings that also traveled to Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, TX. Peto's paintings are housed in many prestigious public and private collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Boston Museum of Fine Art, Boston, MA; National Museum of American Art, Washington D.C.; Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburg, PA; Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH; Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford, CT; New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT; Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA.
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