The Wealth of Autumn
Medium
Painting
Classification
Painting
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase
Accession Number
1984.47
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
About this artwork
Andrew John Henry Way created a dramatic setting for this still life. Cupids dance on the pedestal below the arrangement of fruit, and above the still life is an urn surrounded by dense foliage and trees. The succulent peaches and glistening grapes announce the abundance of the season, and the idyllic landscape to the left is a reminder of the fertile autumn soil. Way trained in Florence and fell in love with the colors and varieties of Tuscan grapes that populated the countryside. His still-lif...
About the Artist
Andrew John Henry Way · 1826–1888
Andrew John Henry Way was born on April 27, 1826, in Washington, D.C., and became one of the leading still-life painters of the American mid-Atlantic in the late nineteenth century. His early artistic training began around 1847 in Cincinnati under the portrait painter John Peter Frankenstein, followed by further study in Baltimore with Alfred Jacob Miller. In 1850 he traveled to Europe, working in...