Fruit and Baltimore Oriole

1858

Wagguno

Associated Names
Wagguno

Artist, American, active 1858

In this painting, a large half watermelon with vibrant red flesh and black seeds sits at the center of a white plate with a silver knife on top of it. Surrounding it on the long wooden table are various fruits, such as a yellow pineapple, red and green grapes, dark red plums, pink peaches, and a partially peeled orange. Below the table are some pumpkins or squash, as well as what could be figs or radishes. A yellow-and-black bird is perched on the handle of a yellow basket of mixed fruit placed behind the watermelon. Around the basket are white and pink flowers. In the background, on the left of the painting, a window reveals a scenic landscape featuring a winding river cutting through a green valley and dark, tree-filled hills below a light blue sky with faint pink clouds. The wall behind the table is a plain gray color.

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.

Information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication American Naive Paintings, pages 386-388, which is available as a free PDF https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/American%20Naive%20Painting.pdf

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery M63

Artwork overview

More About this Artwork

The top three-quarters of this horizontal landscape painting is filled with roiling, deeply shadowed clouds that tower over a line of buffalo crossing a grassy meadow below. Small in scale, the buffalo form a line that extends away from us at a diagonal into the distance to our right. Sunlight creates a bright reflection on the stream where the frontmost buffalo crosses, but the other animals are nearly backlit in the raking light. Trees, with branches whipping in the wind, rise along the left side of the painting, and the mountainous landscape to our right is lost in darkness under heavy clouds. The clouds above lighten from navy blue in the lower right corner of the sky to slate blue and white at the center of the painting. Small patches of blue sky are visible between a few breaks in the clouds, and sunlight falls on a cliff-like mountain face in the distance beyond the trees to our left. Another bank of parchment-colored clouds in the upper left corner, closer to us, contrasts with the glimmering light highlighting some of the clouds nearby.

Article:  Artistic Visions of Our Nation’s Nature

See how artists interpret our nation’s natural beauty—from a fluttering Baltimore oriole to a towering redwood tree. 

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Recorded as from Lambertville, New Jersey. (Edgar H. Sittig, Shawnee-on-Delaware, Pennsylvania), by whom sold in 1950 to Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch; by bequest to NGA, 1980.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1954

  • American Primitive Painting from the Collection of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, Part I, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1954, no. 10.

1968

  • American Naive Painting of the 18th and 19th Centuries: 111 Masterpieces from the Collection of E.W. and B.C. Garbisch, traveling exh. by Amer. Fed. of Arts, N.Y., 1968-1970, no. 89, repro. First venue: Grand Palais, Paris.

1970

  • The New World: 1620-1970, Chrysler Art Museum, Provincetown, Massachusetts, 1970, no. 18.

1985

  • American Naive Paintings from the National Gallery of Art, Exh. cat. Traveling exh. by the International Exhibitions Foundation, Washington, 1985-1987, no. 59, color frontispiece. First venue: Museum of American Folk Art, N.Y.

1988

  • La Nascita di Una Nazione: Pittori americani dalla National Gallery of Art di Washington 1730-1880, Palazzo Pepoli Campogrande, Bologna; Galleria Internazionale d'Arte Moderna di Ca'Pesaro, Venice, 1988-1989, no. 59, repro.

Bibliography

1974

  • Neumeyer, Alfred. Geschichte der Amerikanischen Malerei. Munich, 1974: 145, fig. 148.

1992

  • Chotner, Deborah, with contributions by Julie Aronson, Sarah D. Cash, and Laurie Weitzenkorn. American Naive Paintings. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 386-388, color repro. 387.

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 372, repro.

Inscriptions

on reverse (no longer visible, recorded in donor records but no known photograph): Painted by Wagguno, 1858

Wikidata ID

Q20188397

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