Still Life—Strawberries, Nuts, &c.

A member of a prominent artistic family from Maryland and Pennsylvania, Raphaelle Peale was one of the first painters in the United States to specialize in still life. In this precisely arranged composition, he meticulously rendered the various surfaces and forms of fruits, nuts, and tableware. Influenced by 17th-century Dutch still lifes, Peale featured imported material goods, such as Chinese porcelain made for the American market, a luxury item symbolizing the increasing power and prosperity of the new nation. The large glass urn may hold strawberries grown out of season in greenhouses, called hothouses, an experiment undertaken at the family’s farm outside of Philadelphia.