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An arrangement of ornate antique objects on a table with an embroidered cloth

Against a green-gold background that is dark at left and brightens at right, a table with a green cloth embroidered with red designs holds an array of unique ornamental objects. At center, a large heavy book with a decaying leather cover holds several objects, including a tall, tapering metalwork torch holder, and a blue and gold plate decorated with a bird. The ornate handle of a sword rests in a large bowl at right, and its blade stretches in a gentle downward curve to the opposite end of the table. Around the book are several vases, cups, a candle holder, a bust of a soldier in a helmet, and other objects.

Gallery Text

This painting portrays a group of exotic objects from the collection of William Hazleton Folwell, the Philadelphia dry-goods importer who commissioned the work. Comprising genuine antiques, contemporary ceramics, and modern replicas, Folwell’s collection reflects the eclecticism of Victorian taste and the influence of the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition held in 1876. This international fair introduced Americans to objects from around the world and sparked widespread interest in collecting exotica.

Famous for his trompe l’oeil paintings, Harnett was among the most technically skilled painters in late nineteenth-century America. Few painters were as adept at rendering the surfaces of material objects. Here Harnett uses thick impasto to describe the incised surface of the torch stand, and staccato brushwork to define the woven texture of the tablecloth.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1942.220
People
William Michael Harnett, American (Clonakilty, Ireland 1848 - 1892 New York, NY)
Title
Still Life with Bric-a-Brac
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1878
Places
Creation Place: North America, United States
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/230438

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2120, European and American Art, 17th–19th century, The Lure of the East
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
81.3 x 108.6 cm (32 x 42 3/4 in.)
framed: 94.6 x 120.7 x 7.6 cm (37 1/4 x 47 1/2 x 3 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: l.r.: W. M. Harnett / 1878

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Commissioned by William Hazleton Folwell, Philadelphia, 1878. Purchased by Grenville L. Winthrop, New York, NY, 1942 [through Martin Birnbaum], gift; to the Fogg Art Museum, 1942.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Grenville L. Winthrop, Class of 1886
Accession Year
1942
Object Number
1942.220
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.

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Publication History

  • Alfred V. Frankenstein, "The Harnett Story", San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco, August 29, 1948), vol. 12, no. 17, pp. 9 - 12, p. 11, repr. p. 11
  • Fogg Art Museum and Benjamin Rowland, Jr., Real and Ideal in American Art, exh. cat. (Cambridge, MA, Summer 1948), cat. 16
  • Virgil Barker, American Painting: History and Interpretation, The Macmillan Company (New York, 1950), p. 576
  • Alfred V. Frankenstein, After the Hunt: William Harnett and Other American Still Life Painters 1870 - 1900, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA, 1969), p. 183, pl. 35
  • William H. Gerdts, "The Bric-a-Brac Still Life", The Magazine Antiques (November 1971), pp. 744-748, p. 747, no. 745, ill.
  • William H. Gerdts and Russell Burke, American Still Life Painting, Praeger (New York, NY, 1971), pp. 135, 138, reproduced fig. 10-5
  • William H. Gerdts, "On the Tabletop: Europe and America", Art in America (September 1972 - October 1972), pp. 62-69, reproduced p. 68
  • Kenyon Castle Bolton, III, Peter G. Huenink, Earl A. Powell III, Harry Z. Rand, and Nanette C. Sexton, American Art at Harvard, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1972), cat. 89, ill.
  • Barbara S. Groseclose, "Vanity and the Artist: Some Still-Life Paintings by William Michael Harnett", American Art Journal (Winter 1987), vol. XIX, no. 1, pp. 51-59, footnote no. 24, p. 59
  • Doreen Bolger, "Cards and Letters from his Friends": Mr. Hulings' Rack Picture by Wm M. Harnett, American Art Journal (1990), vol. XXII, no. 2, pp. 4-32, p. 13, fig. 9
  • Doreen Bolger, Marc A. Simpson, and John Wilmerding, William M. Harnett, exh. cat., Metropolitan Museum of Art / Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, NY, 1992), p. 36, fig. 9; p. 246, fig. 112
  • Timothy Anglin Burgard, American Art at Harvard: Cultures and Contexts, brochure, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1994), p. 12, cat. 75
  • David Lubin, Picturing a Nation: Art and Social Change in Nineteenth-Century America (New Haven, 1994), p. 282, fig. 156
  • Patrick Mauries, Le Trompe-l'oeil de l'Antiquite au XX siecle, Gallimard (Paris, France, 1996), pp. 270-8, pp. 274-5, ill.
  • Holly Edwards, Noble Dreams, Wicked Pleasures: Orientalism in America, 1870-1930, exh. cat., Princeton University Press and Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute (Princeton, NJ, 2000), p. 6; repr in color p. 4, fig. 1
  • Stephan Wolohojian, ed., A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press (U.S.) (New York, 2003), pp. 443-44, cat. 198, ill.
  • Stephan Wolohojian, Ingres, Burne-Jones, Whistler, Renoir... La Collection Grenville L. Winthrop, exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon and Réunion des Musées Nationaux (Paris, France, 2003), pp. 457-59, cat. 198, ill.
  • Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., Virginia Anderson, and Kimberly Orcutt, ed., American Paintings at Harvard, Volume Two, Paintings, Drawings, Pastels and Stained Glass by Artists Born 1826-1856, Harvard Art Museums and Yale University Press (U.S.) (Cambridge, MA and New Haven, CT, 2008), p. 129-31, cat. no. 94, p. 130, ill.
  • Stephan Wolohojian and Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Harvard Art Museum/ Handbook, ed. Stephan Wolohojian, Harvard Art Museum (Cambridge, 2008), p. 137, ill.
  • Mark D. Mitchell, The Art of American Still Life: Audubon to Warhol, exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelphia, 2015), pp. 38-39, repr. p. 38

Exhibition History

  • Real and Ideal in American Art, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 06/01/1948 - 09/01/1948
  • American Art at Harvard, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/19/1972 - 06/18/1972
  • Master Paintings from the Fogg Collection, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/13/1977 - 08/31/1977
  • American Art at Harvard: Cultures and Contexts, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 10/01/1994 - 12/30/1994
  • The Persistence of Memory: Continuity and Change in American Cultures, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 07/29/1995 - 05/13/2001
  • A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 10/23/2003 - 01/25/2004
  • For Students of Art and Lovers of Beauty: Highlights from the Collection of Grenville L. Winthrop, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/16/2004
  • Re-View: S424-426 Western Art from 1560 to 1900, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 08/16/2008 - 06/18/2011
  • 32Q: 2120 19th Century, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project
  • Collection Highlights

Related Works

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu