Art for the Nation    
The Old ViolinWilliam Harnett, Trompe l'Oeil MasterPainting Money  
Trompe l'Oeil William Harnett  
   

William Harnett
Unknown photographer, John F. Peto and William M. Harnett in Peto’s Philadelphia Studio (detail), 1870, Peto Family Albums, The Studio, Island Heights, New Jersey

Born in Ireland in 1848, William Harnett was brought as an infant to Philadelphia, where he grew up in a working class family. As a teenager, he worked as an errand boy and later (like fellow trompe l'oeil artist John Haberle) trained as a silver engraver. In 1866 Harnett began evening classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, learning to draw from plaster casts of antique sculpture.

 



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