Books on a Table
Framed: 33 7/8 x 51 7/8 x 3 1/2 inches (86.03 x 131.75 x 8.89 cm)
- 217
John F. Peto, Brooklyn Museum, N.Y., March 1–July 9, 1950 (traveled), no. 20.
Important Information Inside: The Art of John F. Peto and the Idea of Still-Life Painting in Nineteenth-Century America, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., January 16–September 18, 1983 (traveled), no. 106.
The Odd Picture: Distinctive and Yet Not Necessarily Predictable Efforts by Recognized Masters, All Modern in Their Several Ways, James Maroney, New York, November 1984, no. 11.
Penn’s Promise: Still Life Painting in Pennsylvania, 1795–1930, Westmoreland Museum of Art, Greensburg, Pa., May 29–July 31, 1988, no. 91.
Books on a Table presents a variety of objects associated with a gentleman's study. Precariously balanced, the arrangement suggests contemplation, if not lament, of the end of the 19th century. The quill pen and candle mark technologies that were antiquated by 1900. The magically turning pages of the book at the apex of the composition invoke the passage of time. The isolated and neglected objects may also symbolize the painter himself, who created his art in virtual seclusion.
Probably to Christine Pearl Peto (widow of the artist), 1907;
to Helen Peto Smiley (daughter of the artist), Island Heights, N.J., by 1949;
to Blossom Smiley Bejarano (granddaughter of the artist), Greenwich, Conn., by descent;
to (James Maroney, New York, by 1981);
to NAMA, 1990.
Lloyd Goodrich, “Harnett and Peto: A Note on Style,” Art Bulletin 31 (March 1949), 57–58, fig. 3 (as Books and Table Top).
John I. H. Bauer, “Peto and the American Trompe l’Oeil Tradition,” Magazine of Art 43 (May 1950), 185.
John F. Peto, exh. cat. (Brooklyn, N.Y.: Brooklyn Museum, 1950), 47.
Alfred Frankenstein, After the Hunt: William Harnett and Other American Still Life Painters, 1870–1900 (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1953), 111.
Alfred Frankenstein, After the Hunt: William Harnett and Other American Still Life Painters, 1870–1900, rev. ed. (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1969), 111.
John Wilmerding, Important Information Inside: The Art of John F. Peto and the Idea of Still-Life Painting in Nineteenth-Century America, exh. cat. (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1983), 117–19, 252.
James H. Maroney, Jr., The Odd Picture: Distinctive and Yet Not Necessarily Predictable Efforts by Recognized Masters, All Modern in Their Several Ways (New York: James Maroney, 1984), 14–15, 54–55.
Penn’s Promise: Still Life Painting in Pennsylvania, 1795–1930, exh. cat. (Greensburg, Pa.: Westmoreland Museum of Art, 1988), 5, 75.
Laura Caruso, “Nelson Gallery Gets a Still Life by Peto,” Kansas City Star, August 19, 1990, I8.
“New at the Nelson: Masterful Still Life,” Calendar (Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art), September 1990, cover, 2.
“U.S. Museums Sell Kuniyoshis to High Bidder,” Art in America 78 (September 1990), 61.
The Society of Fellows Silver Anniversary (Kansas City, Mo.: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1990), unpaginated.
Roger Ward, “Selected Acquisitions of European and American Paintings at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, 1986–1990,” Burlington Magazine 133 (February 1991), 157–59.
Henry Adams, Handbook of American Paintings in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, Mo.: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1991), 5, 56–57.
Henry Adams, “Will the Real William Harnett Please Stand Up,” Smithsonian 22 (March 1992), 54–55, 62.
Alice Thorson, “Eden’s Bounty: Nelson Buys Still Life of American Abundance,” Kansas City Star, November 26, 1992, G10.
Margaret C. Conrads, “Masterful American Still Life Joins Collection,” Calendar (Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art), November 1992, 2.
Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collections. 6th ed. (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 54, 228, 242.
Michael Churchman and Scott Erbes, High Ideals and Aspirations: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art 1933–1993 (Kansas City, Mo.: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 109.
Christie’s, New York, May 26, 1994, 42.
Marc Simpson, “In the Library,” Timken Museum of Art: Acquisitions, 1995–2005 (San Diego: Putnam Foundation, 2006), 30, 31, fi g. 2.
Margaret C. Conrads, ed. The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: American Paintings to 1945 (Kansas City, Mo.: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2007), 1: 443–445, 2: 197–198.
Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 173.
