Still Life
1939
Medium
Painting
Classification
Painting
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Earle Horter
Accession Number
1969.75
Tags
Art Historical Context
Earl Horter's *Still Life* (1939) is a captivating example of American modernist painting, housed in the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Gifted by Mrs. Earle Horter, this oil painting reimagines the traditional still life genre through an abstract lens. Created on the eve of World War II, it reflects the era's artistic shift toward bold experimentation amid economic recovery and global uncertainty. Horter, a Philadelphia-based artist known for his dynamic abstractions influenced by Cubism and Futurism, distorts familiar objects—fruit and a container—into rhythmic, geometric forms. The compos...