Near as real as what's there - selected paintings by John Frederick Peto

 

Student's Materials, circa 1890-1900.

Old Models, 1892. (A false signature by Peto's more famous contemporary William Harnett has been added at bottom left.)

The Arnold Inkwell.

Oranges, Wrapped.

The Poor Man's Store, 1885.

Books and Inkwell.

Straw Hat, Bag, and Umbrella, 1890-early 1900s.

The Cup We All Race 4, circa 1900.

Still Life with Books and Inkwell, 1899.

Old Time Card Rack, 1900.

Hommage Au Chardin / Wine and Brass Stewing Kettle - Preparation for a French Potage.

Books, Mug, Pipe, and Violin, circa 1880.

Pipe and Mug.

Fish House Door, 1905.

English Breakfast.

Still life with Mug, Pipe, and Book, 1889.

For the Track, 1895.

Reminiscences of 1865, circa 1901.

Still Life with Green Candlestick and Book, circa 1890.

Door with Lanterns, late 1880s.

Cucumber, circa 1890s.

Market Basket, Hat, and Umbrella, after 1890.

Forgotten Friends / Candlestick and Books on Table.

Book Leaning Against Mug with Pipe, 1889.

Old Violin, 1890.

Candlestick, Pipe, and Tobacco Box, circa 1890.

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John Frederick Peto (21 May 1854, Philadelphia – 23 November 1907, Island Heights, New Jersey), American trompe-l'œil painter, long forgotten until his paintings were rediscovered along with those of his contemporary and fellow trompe-l'œil artist, the successful and influential William Harnett. (Many of Peto's paintings have actually had the false signature of Harnett added in an attempt to make them more valuable.) He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts at the same time as Harnett. Until he was in his mid-thirties, he submitted paintings regularly to the annual exhibitions at the Philadelphia Academy. In 1889, he moved to the resort town of Island Heights, New Jersey, where he worked in obscurity for the rest of his life. He and his wife took in seasonal boarders, he found work playing cornet at the town's camp revival meetings, and he supplemented his income by selling his paintings to tourists; his work was never professionally exhibited during his lifetime. The John F. Peto Studio Museum, opened in 2011, preserves the artist's house and studio in Island Heights. Built in 1889, the house was mostly designed by the artist and remained in his family for over 100 years.

Polished off - Dying Abel by Giovanni Dupré, marble, in the collection of the Hermitage, circa 1844

 

Other versions:

 The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, marble, 1853.

The Louvre, plaster, before 1855.

The Galleria d'arte moderna, Palazzo Pitti, bronze, circa 1846-49.

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Giovanni Dupré (1 March 1817, Siena – 10 January 1882, Florence), Italian sculptor, considered one of the most important Italian sculptors of the nineteenth century. He began work in his father's carving workshop and that of Paolo Sani, where fakes of Renaissance sculptures were produced. In 1842, in an open contest run by the Accademia di Belle Arti, he won first prize with a Judgment of Paris and made his reputation with a life-size figure of the dead Abel in plaster. The latter was purchased for the Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaievna, Duchess of Leuchtenberg, and which is now in the collection of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, along with the marble copy - the subject of this post - which was completed two years later. Another version, cast in bronze, resides in the Galleria d'arte moderna of Florence's Palazzo Pitti. The sensuality and raw naturalism of the figure, greeted with a degree of shock at the time, presaged the beginning of the end of Neoclassicism in Italian sculpture and the advent of Romanticism. He went on to great success, his best known works being religious figures, portraits, and public and funerary monuments. His memoirs, Pensieri sull’arte e ricordi autobiografici, were published in 1879 and translated into English in 1886. His daughter and pupil Amalia achieved some recognition as a sculptor.

Pugilists and wrasslers - a selection of vintage photographs

 

Wrestler Frank Crozier, 1909.

Gordon Hazell - right- and Johnny Sullivan, London, 1954.

1927.

Cornell College wrestling team, 1948.

My namesake, here, is probably the least prepossessing of the group.

Yes, that lovely profile belongs to actor James Cagney. I know neither the circumstances nor the identity of his hirsute opponent.

Ching Hook ( or Ghook, né Hezekiah Moscow), circa 1888.

1904.

Boxer Joseph Sarfati, 1930.

1904.

Frank Mantell "Battling Mantell" (né Frank Otto Mintell), 1912.

Boxing match aboard the USS New York, 1899.

Boxer Jeremiah "Joe" Jeannette, circa 1905-10.

Ad Santel (né Adolf Ernst) and unidentified opponent, 1923. 

Stanley Ketchel (left) and Billy Papke, 1908. (Papke seemed to favor these backless "trunks".)