Genre and Still Life Painting

John Haberle (1853–1933)
One Dollar Bill, 1890
John Haberle, master of trompe l’oeil painting, was particularly well known for his still-life paintings of currency. His One Dollar Bill features a single silver-dollar certificate, first circulated in the 1870s as part of a shift away from the gold standard in American currency. Although banks initially were not required to honor these certificates—a compromise with those who supported gold—the bill featured in Haberle’s detailed painting appears worn, suggesting frequent use. The first US Treasury–issued currency to display the image of a woman, the silver-dollar certificate featured an engraving after a 1796 portrait of Martha Washington. One Dollar Bill is a multifaceted visual pun that shifts from still life to celebrity portrait to reproduction of a famous painting, inviting viewers to consider the roles of wealth and artistic reproduction in nineteenth-century American visual culture.
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