Still Life

In this painting, Harnett continues the tradition established by the Peale family of painters of quiet, precise renderings of fruit, with a difference: here, the fruit lies in a rustic basket, not a bowl. The basket is pictured with respectful attentiveness to its own simple gifts: the sparse elegance of its symmetrical design, the graceful arc of the handle, the glistening tack heads—the only bit of trompe l’oeil in the painting— and the subtle handling of the texture and coloring of the wood.