Fruit Still Life with Chinese Export Basket
1824
Medium
oil on wood
Dimensions
overall: 37.8 x 45.6 cm (14 7/8 x 17 15/16 in.) framed: 57.8 x 65.4 x 9.8 cm (22 3/4 x 25 3/4 x 3 7/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CAB
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas M. Evans, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art
Accession Number
1990.7.1
Art Historical Context
James Peale’s *Fruit Still Life with Chinese Export Basket* (1824) captures the quiet elegance of early American still-life painting. Executed in oil on wood, the compact panel allowed Peale to achieve a smooth, luminous surface for rendering the varied textures of ripe fruit and woven basketry. The carefully arranged produce and the imported Chinese container together evoke both domestic abundance and the expanding reach of global trade in the young republic. Peale, a member of the celebrated Peale artistic dynasty, helped elevate still life from a minor genre to a respected subject in the U...
About the Artist
James Peale
James Peale was an American painter born in 1749, the younger brother of the more famous Charles Willson Peale, and a member of one of the most remarkable artistic families in the history of American art. Trained largely by his brother, James worked for many years in Charles Willson's shadow, assisting with portraits and miniatures in the Philadelphia studio before developing his own independent p...