Straw Hat, Bag, and Umbrella

1890/early 1900s

John Frederick Peto

Associated Names
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 Number

    2014.18.39

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

The artist; probably by inheritance to the artist's daughter, Helen Peto Smiley [1893-1978], Island Heights, New Jersey; probably by inheritance to her daughter, Blossom (Bee) Helen Smiley Benjarano [1915-2003], Island Heights, New Jersey.[1] (Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York); purchased 12 July 1979 by Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, Upperville, Virginia;[2] bequest 1999 to NGA, with life interest to his wife, Rachel Lambert Mellon [1910-2014].

[1] According to a note from the donor’s collection records, a handwritten inscription on the reverse of the painting reads “Blossom/ Smiley / Benjarano / 2,” copy in NGA curatorial file.

[2] See invoice from Hirschl & Adler Galleries to Mrs. Paul [Rachel Lambert] Mellon, copy in NGA curatorial file.

Associated Names

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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