c. 1870

Still Life with Fruit, Flowers, and a Jewel Case

Colorful still-life depictions of fruit and flowers were prized by mid-nineteenth-century Americans, who decorated their dining rooms with affordable prints of similar subjects made by firms such as Currier and Ives. These popular compositions also served as models for self-taught or informally trained painters, as may be the case with this image. The peculiar rendering of the grapes and the dense arrangement of fruit and flowers resembles the many still lifes produced for Currier and Ives by artists such as Frances Flora (Fanny) Palmer (1812-1876).