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"
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
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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RIGHTS STATEMENT
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Who painted this?
This work is by Severin Roesen. Rosesen was a German-born and German-trained artist who immigrated to the United States in the 1848. He became known for his still life paintings, and this one is among his most ambitious works. Still life paintings were a favorite way for an artist to showcase his technical skill, and they were also appropriate decorations for a home in mid-1800s America, so they were in demand in the art market of the time.
Do the eggs (the only "animal" presence here) have a special meaning?
Still life paintings often have many allusions to life and bounty, and sometimes to death and decay. We can surmise that the bird's nest is presented to allude to birth and possibility. Images of natural prosperity and fertility were popular as decorations in the homes of affluent American families in the mid-1800s!
I see! Thank you very much!