Fruit Still Life

c. 1849

Robert Seldon Duncanson

Associated Names
Robert Seldon Duncanson

Painter, American, 1821 - 1872

This painting shows various pieces of fruit arranged in a thin white bowl, including apples, peaches, green and purple grapes, cherries, pears, and plums. Some of the fruit is overflowing from the bowl, and rests on the white surface below, surrounding the bowl. Many of the pieces of fruit have thin stems attached to them, and some have thick green leaves. Behind the fruit, the background is dark brown, and there is a tan arched border around the painting.

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Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Dr. George C. Mendenhall, Cincinnati, after 1877; to his daughter-in-law, Mrs. Charles Mendenhall; to her daughter, Mrs. George P. Stimson; to her niece, Mrs. W.E. Stilwell, Jr.;[1] (Kennedy Galleries, New York), by 1962; purchased 30 October 1968 by the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art.
[1] The Corcoran's accession record sheet, in NGA curatorial files, records that Dr. Mendenhall "received [the painting] as bill from a patient." This was meant to be recorded as "received [the painting] from a patient in payment of a bill." See: "Important American Still Life and Portrait Paintings," The Kennedy Quarterly 3, no. 3 (December 1962): 117. Dr. Mendenhall was a Cincinnati physician.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1955

  • Rediscoveries in American Painting, Cincinnati Museum of Art, 1955, no. 25.

1972

  • 19th Century Afro-American Artists: Duncanson & Bannister, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 13 January - 13 February 1972, unnumbered checklist.

  • Robert S. Duncanson: A Centennial Exhibition, Cincinnati Art Museum, 16 March - 30 April 1972, no. 5, repro.

1976

  • Selections of Nineteenth-Century Afro-American Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 19 June - 1 August 1976, no. 10, repro.

1978

  • The Object as Subject: American Still Lifes from the Corcoran Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 10 December 1978 - 25 March 1979, no catalogue.

1984

  • Duncanson: A British-American Connection, Museum of Art, North Carolina Central University, Durham, 3 June - 1 July 1984, no. 4, repro.

1985

  • Hidden Heritage: Afro-American Art, 1800-1950, Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue, Washington; The Bronx Museum of the Arts; California Afro-American Museum, Los Angeles; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte; San Antonio Museum of Art; Toledo Museum of Art; Baltimore Museum of Art; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; Oklahoma Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, 1985-1988, no. 11, repro.

1993

  • The Century Club Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 21 July - 13 September 1993, unpublished checklist.

1995

  • Lifting the Veil: The Emergence of the African-American Artist, The Taft Museum, Cincinnati; The Cincinnati Art Museum; The Washington University Gallery of Art, St. Louis; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth; Clark Atlanta University Art Gallery, Atlanta; Hammonds House Galleries, Atlanta, 1995-1996.

1999

  • Celebrating the Legacy: African American Art from the Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 30 July - 22 September 1999, unpublished checklist.

2002

  • Celebrating the Legacy II: African American Art at the Corcoran, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 10 January - 25 February 2002, unpublished checklist.

2005

  • Encouraging American Genius: Master Paintings from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Parrish Art Museum, Southampton; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte; John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, 2005-2007, checklist no. 19 (Washington only).

2013

  • American Journeys: Visions of Place, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 21 September 2013 - 28 September 2014, unpublished checklist.

Bibliography

1985

  • Harrington, Lynda Roscoe. Sharing Traditions: Five Black Artists in Nineteenth-Century America. Exh. cat. National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC, 1985: 52-54, fig. 10.

2011

  • Cash, Sarah, ed. Corcoran Gallery of Art: American Paintings to 1945. Washington, 2011: 294, repro.

2015

  • Klein, Shana. "Cultivating Fruit and Equality: The Still-Life Paintings of Robert Duncanson." American Art 29, no. 2 (Summer 2015): 69-70, color fig. 4.

Wikidata ID

Q46627707

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