A shallow bowl filled with oranges, grapes, and nuts is surrounded by a short, flaring glass, a glass decanter, a lemon, and more nuts arranged along a wooden tabletop in this horizontal still life painting. The objects nearly fill the composition, and the table extends off both sides. The three oranges are pale, with the one at the center nearly yellow, and a stem of dark green leaves lies across the top. A bunch of shriveled grapes, like raisins still on the vine, lies across the almonds and other nuts, all in their shells, in the bowl. The outside of the bowl is white, and it has a gently scalloped rim. A lemon sits to our left of the bowl of fruit, and behind it, the glass decanter has a teardrop-shaped glass stopper. Light coming from the front and our left makes the peachy liquid glow. To our right are four whole walnuts in their shells, with a few grapes hanging from the bowl. Behind the walnuts, a long stemmed, flaring, clear glass is almost filled with the peach-colored liquid. The background is deeply shadowed at the upper left, lightening slightly to elephant gray toward the lower right. The artist inscribed the painting as if he had written his name, date, and location on the front edge of the table, near the lower right corner: “Raphaelle Peale Aug: 5th 1814 Philad:”
Read the visual description

A shallow bowl filled with oranges, grapes, and nuts is surrounded by a short, flaring glass, a glass decanter, a lemon, and more nuts arranged along a wooden tabletop in this horizontal still life painting. The objects nearly fill the composition, and the table extends off both sides. The three oranges are pale, with the one at the center nearly yellow, and a stem of dark green leaves lies across the top. A bunch of shriveled grapes, like raisins still on the vine, lies across the almonds and other nuts, all in their shells, in the bowl. The outside of the bowl is white, and it has a gently scalloped rim. A lemon sits to our left of the bowl of fruit, and behind it, the glass decanter has a teardrop-shaped glass stopper. Light coming from the front and our left makes the peachy liquid glow. To our right are four whole walnuts in their shells, with a few grapes hanging from the bowl. Behind the walnuts, a long stemmed, flaring, clear glass is almost filled with the peach-colored liquid. The background is deeply shadowed at the upper left, lightening slightly to elephant gray toward the lower right. The artist inscribed the painting as if he had written his name, date, and location on the front edge of the table, near the lower right corner: “Raphaelle Peale Aug: 5th 1814 Philad:”

National Gallery of Art · Painting

A Dessert

Raphaelle Peale

Date
1814
Medium
oil on wood
Dimensions
overall: 34 x 48.3 cm (13 3/8 x 19 in.) framed: 53 x 67 cm (20 7/8 x 26 3/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Accession number
1999.44.1
Credit line
Gift of Jo Ann and Julian Ganz, Jr. in memory of Franklin D. Murphy
Time span
1801 to 1825
Department
CAB

Subjects and terms

  • painted surface
  • American
  • still life
  • still
  • Acquired after publication of American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part II [M-Z]
  • Fruits
  • Nuts
Provenance

James Fullerton, Boston, by 1818 until at least 1828. Oswald J. Arnold [1873-1949], Chicago and Minneapolis; by inheritance to his sister, Charlotte A. Arnold, Minneapolis; her nephew and his wife; purchased 1975 by (Terry Delapp, Los Angeles); purchased 1976 by Jo Ann and Julian Ganz, Jr., Los Angeles;[1] gift (partial and promised) 1999 to NGA; gift completed 2008. [1] Provenance from curator's acquisition proposal and catalogue of the 1981 exhibition of the Ganz collection (_An American Perspective_). James Fullerton lent the painting to the Boston Athenaeum's annual exhibition in 1828.

Inscription

lower right: Raphaelle Peale Aug:-5th 1814 / Philad:; reverse: Fullerton

NGA object ID 110101. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.