A Gentleman’s Table
Claude Raguet Hirstafter 1890
National Museum of Women in the Arts
Washington, D.C., United States
Commissioned for a Chicago men’s club, Claude Raguet Hirst’s “A Gentleman’s Table” subtly critiques masculine pastimes while still appealing to male patrons. The work’s hyper-realistic style exemplifies a traditional technique called trompe l’oeil, French for “deceives the eye.” At the time, trompe l’oeil works were typically painted by and for men. Hirst claimed the method as her own and refashioned it with messages appealing to female viewers. Her skill rendering tight contours, tonal values, reflections, and textures resulted in successful illusionistic images.
“A Gentleman’s Table” includes several bottles of alcohol and a corkscrew (with a cork still attached) to indicate that drinking is ongoing at this gathering. It is as if the table’s occupants have just stepped away for a moment and will return to finish their game and drinks. At the lower left of the painting the combination of glass, spoon, sugar cube, and lemon likely suggest the presence of absinthe, seen as a potent and potentially lethal liquor.
Whereas the trompe l’oeil paintings by Hirst’s male contemporaries cast masculine leisurely pursuits in a postive light, “A Gentleman’s Table” offers a discourse on late 19th century social ills. In Hirst’s hands, typical accoutrements, such as pipes, cards, and glasses, may allude to vices, including gambling and alcoholism, both ingrained in male culture at the time and of particular concern to many women of the day.
- Title: A Gentleman’s Table
- Creator: Claude Raguet Hirst
- Creator Lifespan: 1855/1942
- Creator Gender: Female
- Creator Death Place: New York City, New York
- Creator Birth Place: Cincinnati, Ohio
- Date: after 1890
- artist profile: Claude Raguet Hirst was the only American woman noted for painting hyper-realistic still lifes at the turn of the 20th century. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Claudine Hirst studied at the University of Cincinnati School of Drawing and Painting. She adopted the masculine version of her name in the early 1870s as she began exhibiting. Moving to New York City in 1879, Hirst studied privately and built her reputation as a skillful painter of fruit and floral still lifes. She proved particularly skilled with watercolor. Abruptly in 1890, Hirst began portraying objects associated with male pastimes. She also adopted the illusionistic technique called trompe-l’oeil (French for “deceives the eye”). Such subject matter and technique had long been the focus of male artists like William M. Harnett and John F. Peto. But whereas Harnett and Peto celebrated activities like hunting and pipe-smoking, Hirst critiqued masculine culture. Throughout her career, Hirst also included books in her compositions. Many of these texts were by early progressive women writers. Unlike her male counterparts, Hirst rendered books with legible pages and illustrations, drawing viewers’ attention to the beliefs she is thought to have championed as a woman and an artist. In her sixties, Hirst saw her exhibited works begin to receive widespread acknowledgment in the form of jury prizes and critical acclaim. She lightened her palette and rejected the pipes and masculine accessories from her earlier still lifes. She continued to paint and exhibit into her eighties, leaving a legacy of more than 100 still-life paintings.
- Physical Dimensions: w32 x h18 in (Without frame)
- Type: Painting
- Rights: Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay; Photography by Lee Stalsworth
- External Link: National Museum of Women in the Arts
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- National Museum of Women in the Arts’ Exhibitions: “Claude Raguet Hirst: Transforming the American Still Life,” 2004; “American Women Artists: 1830-1930,” 1987
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