Straw Hat, Bag, and Umbrella

1890/early 1900s

John Frederick Peto

Artist, American, 1854 - 1907

A wide-brimmed straw hat, teal-green umbrella, and rust-brown satchel hang from a nail at the center of this vertical, still-life painting. The nail is driven into a clover-green plank across the top of the picture, perhaps representing molding on the wall otherwise mottled with beige and ash brown. The short black handle of the floral-patterned bag is looped over the nail. The long umbrella has a wood, knob-like handle and is edged around the limp, collapsed edge with parchment white. It is not clear how the umbrella is affixed to the bag or nail, but the hat hangs from a string looped around one the umbrella ribs. The arrangement is lit sharply from the left so deep shadows are cast on the wall to the right. The wall or column ends near the left edge of the painting, and a black strip there could be a view into a shadowy room beyond.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on fabric transferred from canvas board

  • Credit Line

    Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

  • Dimensions

    overall: 40.8 × 25.56 cm (16 1/16 × 10 1/16 in.)
    framed: 42.39 × 26.99 × 3.97 cm (16 11/16 × 10 5/8 × 1 9/16 in.)

  • Accession

    2014.18.39

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York).[1] Paul Mellon [1907-1999], Upperville, Virginia; bequest 1999 to NGA, with life interest to his wife, Rachel Lambert Mellon [1910-2014].
[1] This was the owner in 1980, according to the Smithsonian Institution's Inventory of American Paintings, which is maintained at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. There are two Hirschl & Adler Galleries labels in the upper and lower center of the reverse of the painting that both include the gallery number APG: 7886D.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1950

  • Possibly John F. Peto, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton; The Brooklyn Museum; California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1950, no. 29, as Carpet Bag, Hat and Umbrella.

Inscriptions

reverse, in green pen: Painted by my father John Frederick Peto. / Helen Peto Smiley; reverse, in black pen: Blossom Smiley Bejarano 2

Wikidata ID

Q20190241

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