Gift of Ann and Jim Goodnight
This still life painting features books, sheet music, a flute, a quill and inkpot, a small blue vase, and an oil lamp. The intentional grouping of objects represents different aspects of love and artistic expression. The books, Cervantes’s Don Quixote and Dante’s Divine Comedy, are stories about human and spiritual love. The sheet music includes an Easter hymn from a prayer book and a love aria from an opera. The ink quill and pot are tools used for writing. The flute is a musical instrument that the artist is said to have played.
William Michael Harnett was an American painter known for painting trompe l’oeil still lifes. Trompe l’oeil means “trick the eye” in French. Trompe l’oeil paintings create the illusion of real objects. Harnett’s paintings often depicted dark-toned groups of objects related to playing music, writing, reading, drinking, smoking, and hunting. He painted Still Life while he was living in Europe in the 1880s. He spent several years in Munich, Germany, where he was a member of the Munich Kunstverein (art association).
Resources for Teachers
Resources for Students
