William Michael Harnett
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for William Michael Harnett
William Michael Harnett
1848 - 1892
American painter. He was brought up in a family of artisans in Philadelphia and was trained as an engraver of silverware. After studying at the Pennsylvania Academy, he moved to New York in 1869 and worked as an engraver while continuing his studies at the Cooper Union. In 1875 he exhibited at the National Academy of Design while supporting himself by painting small, precise still-lifes. He returned to Philadelphia in 1876 and by 1880 had saved enough for a European tour. He settled in Munich, working there and in Paris for six years and returning permanently to New York in 1886.
Although he had no pupils, Harnett was the most influential American still-life painter of the last quarter of the 19th century. Until about 1880 his works were simple table-top still-lifes in the trompe l’oeil tradition of Raphaelle Peale. Set against dark, shallow backgrounds, they consisted of mugs, pipes, books, newspapers, currency, letters and writing materials, as in Writing Table (1877; Philadelphia, PA, Mus. A.) and Banker's Table (1877; New York, Met.). Carefully composed and balanced with realistic colour, precise detail and smooth brushwork, they reflect his training as an engraver. The Artist’s Letter Rack (1879; New York, Met.) is a form of bulletin board with various flat objects— tickets, clippings, receipts, visiting-cards, stamps—haphazardly attached to a wooden board by a criss-crossing network of tapes. This format, widely copied in American painting, had its roots in Dutch 17th-century art. In Munich, Harnett’s scale became almost miniature. He took as his subject-matter more precious objects: antique lamps, elaborate tankards and leather-bound books are arranged in pyramidal fashion against dark and undefined backgrounds. Harnett’s most famous painting, After the Hunt (San Francisco, CA Pal. Legion of Honor), the last and largest version of four, was painted in Paris and exhibited there to considerable acclaim in the Salon of 1885. The following year he sold it to Theodore Stewart to display in his New York saloon, where it spawned hundreds of imitations. A large and minutely detailed trompe l’oeil, it is a trophy-type composition of dead birds, game and hunting accoutrements affixed to a battered wooden door. Harnett’s late works include many paintings of single objects set against a green wooden door. The Faithful Colt (1890; Hartford, CT, Wadsworth Atheneum) consists of a single revolver hanging against the door, with a newspaper clipping below. Plucked Clean (1882; Chicago, IL, A. Inst.) features a scrawny chicken, plucked except for a few tufts of down; a rare glimmer of humour is implied in the title. The Old Violin (1886; Washington, DC, N.G.A.), Music and Good Luck (1888; New York, Met.; see ) and Old Cupboard Door (1889; Sheffield, Graves A.G.), like most of his work, are infused with a gentle melancholy. Harnett, like his contemporary trompe l’oeil painters, received little official attention. The sale of his studio took place at Thomas Birch & Sons, Philadelphia, 23–4 February 1893. After his work was rediscovered by the Downtown Gallery, New York, in 1939, many forgeries of his paintings appeared, among them genuine compositions by John F. Peto to which Harnett’s signature had been added. Frankenstein (1949) identified Harnett’s genuine oeuvre. [Gertrude Grace Sill. "Harnett, William Michael." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press, accessed September 8, 2014, http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T036724.]
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