Poor Artist's Cupboard
Charles Bird Kingc. 1815
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
Washington, DC, United States
Charles Bird King painted this still life in the tradition of trompe l’oeil, French for “deceive the eye.” An alcove holds the few possessions of fictional artist C. Palette: a crust of bread, glass of water, palette, and stack of unpaid bills.
Other clues also suggest Palette’s sad circumstances. A calling card from a cheap would-be patron, Mrs. Skinflint, invites him to visit her after tea. Another records his debt of $5. In the upper left, an advertisement lists an artist’s property for sale: a few articles of clothing and a peck of potatoes.
While the painting seems tongue-in-cheek, King and many of his fellow Philadelphia painters struggled to earn an income.
- Title: Poor Artist's Cupboard
- Creator: Charles Bird King
- Date Created: c. 1815
- Physical Dimensions: overall: 75.72 × 70.64 cm (29 13/16 × 27 13/16 in.) framed: 94.62 × 89.85 × 5.72 cm (37 1/4 × 35 3/8 × 2 1/4 in.)
- Provenance: Probably purchased from the artist December 1839 by the Apollo Association, New York; probably won at the Apollo Association annual auction December 1839 by Albert Christie, New York. William B. Bement [1817-1897], Philadelphia, by 1884;[1] (his estate sale, American Art Association, 27-28 February 1899, no. 121, as _Assets of a Poor Artist_); purchased by J. Sterling. Mr. and Mrs. William Morrell, Cambridge, Massachusetts.[2] purchased by (Victor Spark, New York);[3] (M. Knoedler & Co., New York), by 1954;[4] purchased October 1955 by the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington;[5] acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art. [1] The painting can be seen in an 1884 photograph of Bement's dining room reproduced in Charles M. Skinner, _Catalogue of Works of Art, Wiith Illustrations and Descriptions; Also, Views of the Summer and Winter Homes, Etc. of William B. Bement, of Philadelphia, PA._, Philadelphia,1884: n.p., repro., and Chad Mandeles, "William Michael Harnett's _The Old Cupboard Door_ and the Tradition of _Vanitas_," _American Art Journal_ 18, no. 3 (1986): repro. 58. [2] According to a letter (copy in NGA curatorial files) of 8 June 1955, from W.F. Davidson of Knoedler to Charles L. Glover, Jr., the painting was in the Morrell family for many years. [3] Telegram of 8 June 1955, John Costano (of the Costano Art Gallery in Boston) to Corcoran director Hermann Warner Williams, Jr. (in NGA curatorial files). [4] The Knoedler number "A5801" is penciled on the reverse of the painting's cradle crossbar, near the top center, directly above a gummed label printed with the same number in blue. [5] The painting is listed on page 176, November 1955, Sales Book 17, 1953 July - 1958 March, in the M. Knoedler & Co. Records, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (copy in NGA curatorial files). The acquisition from Knoedler also included the exchange of several paintings that had been deaccessioned by the Corcoran.
- Rights: CC0
- Medium: oil on wood
Get the app
Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more
You are all set!
Your first Culture Weekly will arrive this week.