Still Life with Fruit
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Object Label
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.
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) frame: 48 3/4 × 58 3/4 × 4 3/4 in. (123.8 × 149.2 × 12.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 67.9. No known copyright restrictions (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 67.9_PS20.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
Still Life with Fruit
Date
ca. 1860
Medium
Oil on canvas
Classification
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)
Signatures
Signed lower right (initials in monogram): "S Roesen"
Credit Line
Dick S. Ramsay Fund
Accession Number
67.9
Rights
No known copyright restrictions
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Frequent Art Questions
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!
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