James Peale
Still Life with Vegetables

ArtistAmerican, 1749–1831
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Still Life with Vegetables
Date1826
PlacePhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsCanvas: 20 × 26 1/2 in. (50.8 × 67.3 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, museum purchase funded by the Theta Charity Antiques Show in honor of Mrs. Fred T. Couper, Jr.
Object numberB.85.2
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Chillman Parlor
On view

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Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

James Peale painted portraits, both miniatures and larger works in oils, the mainstay of his profession, until about 1818, when his eyesight began to fail. He then painted still lifes, quickly becoming one of America’s foremost still-life painters, along with his nephew Raphaelle Peale (1774–1825). The crisp and solemn tone of his still lifes have been associated with those by seventeenth-century Spanish artists, specifically the work of Juan Sanchez Cotan, whose paintings were shown at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1818. The perishable foodstuffs alluded to the transience of life, a theme that may have served as a personal rumination on aging for this artist late in his career. This still life was painted for Peale’s daughter Anna Claypoole Peale Staughton (1791–1878) and may, in fact, be among three vegetable still lifes the artist exhibited in 1827 at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

Related examples: Copy by the artist, Still Life with Vegetables, 1818, Winterthur.

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.


Provenance[Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, American 18th, 19th and 20th Century Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture and Decorative Prints, January 26–27, 1984, lot 358]; [Bernard and S. Dean Levy, New York]; purchased by MFAH, 1985.
Exhibition History"The Masterpieces of Bayou Bend, 1620–1870", Bayou Bend Museum of Americana at Tenneco, Houston, September 22, 1991–February 26, 1993.

Theta Charity Antiques Show, Reliant Astrohall, Houston, September 11–15, 2002.

"Art and Appetite: American Painting, Culture and Cuisine," Art Institute of Chicago, November 10, 2013–January 26, 2014.

"Audubon to Warhol: The Art of American Still Life," Philadelphia Museum of Art,
October 27, 2015–January 10, 2016.

"Theta Charity Antiques Show," George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston, November 14–19, 2018.

Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Inscribed on verso: Property of A. C. Staughton / Painted by James Peale / Philad 1826 Aged 76
[no marks]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

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