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Still Life with Fruit

Severin Roesen

American Art

On View: American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, Radical Care
In the mid-nineteenth century, still-life painting underwent a revival in the northeastern United States. Working in a style based on Dutch models, which depicted a multitude of fruits and flowers, Severin Roesen cultivated a popular following with the German community in Pennsylvania. This composition, one of his most elaborate, portrays a grand arrangement of various fruits, a bird’s nest, and a finely painted glass of water, and conveys a sense of wealth and abundance.
MEDIUM Oil on canvas
DATES ca. 1860
DIMENSIONS 40 1/16 × 50 1/8 in. (101.7 × 127.3 cm) frame: 48 3/4 × 58 3/4 × 4 3/4 in. (123.8 × 149.2 × 12.1 cm)  (show scale)
SIGNATURE Signed lower right (initials in monogram): "S Roesen"
COLLECTIONS American Art
ACCESSION NUMBER 67.9
CREDIT LINE Dick S. Ramsay Fund
PROVENANCE Prior to 1966, provenance not yet documented; by 1966, acquired by Mrs. Gilbert Hitchcock of Santa Fe, NM; December 23, 1966, acquired by Robert G. Osborne of New York, NY; November 11, 1967, purchased from Robert G. Osborne by the Brooklyn Museum.
Provenance FAQ
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, Radical Care
CAPTION Severin Roesen (American, born Germany, ca. 1815–after 1872). Still Life with Fruit, ca. 1860. Oil on canvas, 40 1/16 × 50 1/8 in. (101.7 × 127.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 67.9 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 67.9_PS20.jpg)
IMAGE overall, 67.9_PS20.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2024
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