William Michael Harnett

American, 1848 - 1892

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American artist (1848-1892)

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A smoking pipe, piccolo, books, sheet music, an oil-burning lamp, a white and blue pitcher, and a few matches are arranged on a wooden tabletop against a dark background in this vertical still life painting. The black piccolo has a white mouthpiece and is propped on some books at the center of the composition. The piccolo rests on the spine of a paper-bound book, which in turn leans on a volume bound in brown leather tooled with green, red, and gold bands. Under the book, a baby-blue page sits on some sheet music that drapes over the front of the table toward us. The blue cover bears the letters, “RICOLETT” and the sheet music below is labeled, “HELAS QUELLE DOULEUR CANTIQUE.” The edges of the paper are dogeared, tattered, and stained. The short smoking pipe has a rounded brown and ivory bowl, possibly carved from wood, and it rests upside-down on the sheet music. To our left and sitting on the brown book, a white pitcher with a tall neck and handle is painted with a landscape scene in blue on its rounded body over a flaring foot. Two more books are propped behind the brown volume so the dyed edges of the pages, one red and one green, face us. In front of those, one used and two unused matches sit on the tabletop. A white feather writing quill sits in a tapered, ivory-colored inkwell at the front right corner on a stained sage-green cloth that covers the right half of the table. Behind the inkwell and piccolo, two more books lean against a tall, silvery metal lamp, its wicks charred near the burners that extend off the reservoir. One book with a parchment-white cover has been placed upside down but the text “SHAKESPEARE” and “1605” are legible. The spine of a taller, pecan-brown book behind it reads “DANTE.” The background is mottled with shades of dark brown and terracotta red. The artist signed and dated this work with red paint in the lower left corner: “WMHARNETT 1888.”
William Michael Harnett, My Gems, 1888, oil on wood, Gift of the Avalon Foundation, 1957.5.1

My Gems

William Michael Harnett · 1888 · oil on wood ·  Accession ID  1957.5.1

A violin, bow, and at least two pages of sheet music hang from a dark, forest-green, wooden door in this vertical painting. The string holding the violin hangs from a nail at the top center of the composition. The violin takes up the top two-thirds of the painting. The wood body of the instrument is a deep chestnut brown alongside the fingerboard, and it lightens to tawny brown at the corners. White powder coats the strings near the bridge and gathers on the instrument beneath it, where the strings are played. The bow hangs to our right, and it and the violin overlap sheets of music, which curl at the corners. Several pins or nails are pounded into the wooden door, and a few small holes and vertical cracks mar its surface. The door’s handle is a metal ring hanging at the center to our left, and bracket-shaped arms of two rusty hinges nearly span the width of the painting from the right edge. A bolt is missing from the top hinge, and the rightmost section of the bottom hinge has been broken off. A scrap of newspaper is pasted on the door just below the violin, to our left, but the text is illegible. Finally, the corner of a pale blue envelope has been tucked into the edge of the painting near the lower left. A black and white postage stamp with the number 25 is affixed to the upper right corner, and the envelope has been stamped several times. Cursive writing of the address reads, “W. M. Harnett 28 East 14th St New York.” The word “Chargé” has been penned in the lower left corner of the envelope. A circular cancelation stamp near the postage stamp locates and dates the envelope: “PARIS 3 27 AVRIL 86.”
William Michael Harnett, The Old Violin, 1886, oil on canvas, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Mellon Scaife in honor of Paul Mellon, 1993.15.1

The Old Violin

William Michael Harnett · 1886 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1993.15.1

William Michael Harnett, Plucked Clean, 1882, oil on canvas, Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, William A. Clark Fund), 2014.136.133

Plucked Clean

William Michael Harnett · 1882 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2014.136.133

William Michael Harnett, A Sprig of Plums, 1873, charcoal and black chalk with stumping and scratching out on cream wove paper, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985.64.98

A Sprig of Plums

William Michael Harnett · 1873 · charcoal and black chalk with stumping and scratching out on cream wove paper ·  Accession ID  1985.64.98

Bibliography

1969

  • Frankenstein, Alfred. After the Hunt, William Harnett and Other American Still Life Painters 1870-1900. Rev. ed. Berkeley, 1969.

1996

  • Kelly, Franklin, with Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., Deborah Chotner, and John Davis. American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 257.