Genre and Still Life Painting

Robert Spear Dunning (1829–1905)
Harvest of Cherries, 1866
A founder of the Fall River school of still-life painting, based in his home state of Massachusetts, Robert Spear Dunning produced illusionistic works that carried forward a tradition from the pre–Civil War period. Harvest of Cherries, one of his earliest still-lifes, depicts an abundance of the shiny red fruit spilling from a basket and a man’s straw hat set juxtaposed with an overturned woman’s bonnet. The painting evokes a moment of carefree leisure with overtones of courtship. In its precise rendering of natural forms and textures, it is reminiscent of both seventeenth-century Dutch art and nineteenth-century British Pre-Raphaelite art. Here, however, the sensual appeal of the subject is countered by a moralizing reflection on people. The slight tears in the brim of the man’s hat contrast with the flawless cherries—traditionally associated with virtue—as if to emphasize human shortcomings compared to nature’s perfection.
Learn more about this painting on the Terra Foundation website.
Genre and Still Life Painting

Eastman Johnson (1824–1906)
Fiddling His Way, c. 1866

Lilly Martin Spencer (1822–1902)
The Home of the Red, White, and Blue, c. 1867–68

William Sidney Mount (1807–1868)
Fruit Piece: Apples on Tin Cups, 1864

Winslow Homer (1836–1910)
Apple Picking, 1878

William Sidney Mount (1807–1868)
The Trap Sprung, 1844

Robert Spear Dunning (1829–1905)
Harvest of Cherries, 1866

Samuel Colman, Jr. (1832–1920)
Ships Unloading, New York, 1868

John George Brown (1831–1913)
Picnic Party in the Woods, 1872

Martin Johnson Heade (1819–1904)
Still Life with Apple Blossoms in a Nautilus Shell, 1870

Thomas Waterman Wood (1783–1872)
The Yankee Pedlar, 1872

George Caleb Bingham (1811–1879)
The Jolly Flatboatmen, 1877–78

John Haberle (1853–1933)
One Dollar Bill, 1890

Winslow Homer (1836–1910)
The Whittling Boy, 1873

John Frederick Peto (1854–1907)
Old Time Letter Rack, 1894