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John H. Dunham - Late 19th Century Oil, Still Life with Fruit in a Glass Compote

Late 19th Century

Still life of grapes, peaches and red currants on a stone ledge. Well presented in a gilt-effect frame with a crisp white mount. Signed 'E. Stanfield' to the lower right and dated 18...

A charming still life of various fruits displayed together, in it we can see a pineapple which has been viewed as a sign of wealth during these times. Although unsigned the work has ...

A richly detailed still life scene depicting an elegant arrangement of fruit, glassware and wine, against a dark shadowy background. The composition is masterfully balanced by the go...

Caught in a glimpse of daylight, this fine still life depicts a white and gilt vase arranged with soft fruits on a marble ledge. The oil has been well-presented in a bright gilt-effe...

Incredible early American realist still life by John F. Francis (1808 - 1886). Oil on canvas. Incredible detail and masterfully painted. Museum provenance. Unsigned. Measuring 2...

This lovely British Victorian still life oil painting is by noted still life painter George Clare. Painted circa1870 the composition is different fruit, including green and red grape...

Very High quality French or Flemish still life of fruit. Framed in its original 19th-century hand-made counted corner frame the painting is a wond...

Mary Blood Mellen (American Female Artist, 1819-1882) A Large and Exceptional Two-Tiered Fruit Still Life Oil on Canvas Painting, circa 1850 Signed lower right: Mellen Inscribed possibly by the artist's hand on the stretcher bar: To be sent to Sowle & Ward's for Miss C. A. Rice This sumptuous two-tier display of fruit and elegant glassware is the largest and most ambitious still-life painting known to have been produced by Mary Blood Mellen (1819-1882), an American Female artist best known for her luminous marines strongly indebted to the style of Fitz Henry Lane. Indeed, still lifes from her hand are extremely rare. The present work is very close to the style of still life popularized by the Prussian-American artist Severin Roesen (1805-1882) who specialized in the genre during the middle decades of the nineteenth century and is signed as Roesen sometimes signed his own efforts, at lower right, as a curly trompe-l'oeil grape tendril, which reads in this case "Mellen." Until quite recently, Mary Blood Mellen was described in histories of American art exclusively as a copyist, notably of Lane. But as more research into her life and work has been undertaken, that picture of her achievement has been substantially revised and refined. Mellen was, in fact, Lane's pupil, and a copyist of his work. But owing to the skill she developed working with him in his Gloucester studio, Mellen evolved into an artist in her own right, working alongside him as a sometimes collaborator on the same pictures-their work often being so similar that it is frequently difficult to tell it apart. Mellen and Lane also formed a fast friendship. She also painted ravishing moonlit marine compositions of her own invention, as well as nostalgic New England landscapes in her own style. At a 2007 scholarly conference held at Spanierman Galleries in New York in conjunction with the exhibition, "Fitz Henry Lane and Mary Blood Mellen: Old Mysteries and New Discoveries" held at the Cape Ann Historical Museum, there was a small footnote to the effect that Mellen was also known to have copied works by other artists, including Alfred Bricher and Severin Roesen (See Report on Scholars' Gathering in Association with the Exhibition "Fitz Henry Lane & Mary Blood Mellen: Old Mysteries and New Discoveries," 2007, p. 5.) How she encountered works by those figures, particularly Roesen who was active primarily in New York City and eastern and central Pennsylvania, remains speculative. Certainly, copying other artists' work was an aspect of nearly every artist's training at the time Mellen was active as a painter. Mellen was born in Vermont in 1819 to parents who were originally from Massachusetts. She was educated at the Quaker's Fryville Seminary in Bolton, Massachusetts, where she would have learned artistic crafts including theorem painting...