Fruit Still Life with Champagne Bottle

The warm tones and profusion of meticulously rendered fruits spilling forth recall the grand still-life tradition of 17th–century Dutch painting. Always popular with collectors in Europe and America, still lifes were well-suited to the grand interiors of the luxurious homes being built in the prosperous city of Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

Located in the north–central part of the state, Williamsport had an abundance of lumber that gave it more millionaires per capita than any other locale, making it a lucrative market for an enterprising artist such as Severin Roesen, who immigrated to the United States from Germany during the Revolution of 1848.