John Frederick Peto
John Frederick Peto (born May 21, 1854 in Philadelphia , † November 23, 1907 in New York City ) was an American painter who mainly worked as a still life painter in the style of the trompe-l'œil and together with William Michael Harnett and John Haberle belongs to the most famous American painters of this genre.
life and work
John Frederick Peto was born in Philadelphia in 1854 to the gilders and picture frame dealers Thomas Hope and Catherine Peto, née Ham. He had three siblings. Peto grew up with his maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. William Hoffman Ham, in Philadelphia and lived with them until about 1879.
The earliest known picture of the painter is from 1875, in 1876 he was listed in the Philadelphia directory as a painter. He was largely self-taught , so he taught himself to paint, and only briefly studied in 1877 at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts . Despite this short enrollment period and his only sporadic participation in the Academy's annual exhibitions from 1879 to 1887, this and the strong still life tradition in Philadelphia as an institution had a great influence on Peto's artistic development. William Michael Harnett, who was considered a leading artist of the trompe-l'œil and also lived and worked in Philadelphia, was one of the main influences on Peto's work. Both had been friends since the late 1870s at the latest.
Between 1879 and 1889, Peto rented various buildings in the Chestnut Street Ateliers, then known as the Artists' Quarter. He took over Harnett's motifs such as newspapers lying on the table, pipes and beer mugs and stacks of books such as the Lot Cheap job and developed them further. There were also arrangements on shelves, desks or hanging on walls and doors. In 1879 he began to paint breadboard and shelf pictures.
Door with lanterns , around 1880
Take your Choice , 1885
Candlestick, Pipe, and Tobacco Box (c. 1890)
In 1887, Peto married Christine Pearl Smith. He had met her on a trip to Ohio and two years after the wedding they moved to Island Heights on the New Jersey coast , where they built a house and studio. In 1893 the only daughter Helen was born. Due to the distance from Philadelphia, however, Peto was isolated from the artistic currents and withdrew more and more, he only rarely exhibited his works. However, he continued to paint and some of his works that are particularly well known today date from this period. This is how the picture The Cup We all Race 4 was created in 1900 , which plays with different levels of perception in a special way. While on the one hand it meticulously carves out the surface of a wooden board and a pewter cup, the title is nailed onto a metal plate on the picture and is intended to confuse the viewer, who must also consider this to be painted. In addition to the still lifes, he painted a few portraits and experimented with photography .
In old age he suffered increasingly from painful and chronic nephritis , and family and financial difficulties arose due to two aunts he and his wife had taken into their house and the lack of sales. In 1907, at the age of 53, Peto died in New York City of complications from kidney surgery.
The Great Orator , 1904
Job Lot Cheap , ca.1901–1907
Fish House Door , 1905
style
Because of the same subject , Peto is mainly compared with William Michael Harnett, from whom he differed in style. The main difference lies in the fact that Peto paid less attention to the illusion in focus in the trompe-l'oeil, which made his pictures more painterly. He mainly painted objects of everyday life that were worn and often marked by decay and aging, and he refused to embellish objects with painting. This becomes very clear in the Toms River , created in 1905 , on which the yellowed picture of his grandfather is painted on an old wooden flap with scraps of paper and ailing fittings. The title and year are scratched into the wood.
The resulting undertone has a strong nostalgic and romantic to longing effect , while the range of associations in his pictures ranges from gloomy, melancholy to comic. His colors were also warmer and darker than Harnett's and more closely matched the palette of Thomas Eakins or Albert Pinkham Ryder .
In addition, they were often autobiographical and closed at the same time, puzzling the viewer and containing allusions to the murder of Abraham Lincoln in 1865.
Only a few pictures were signed by Peto, very often he used canvases several times and painted over compositions that he had given up.
reception
Unlike other well-known representatives of the trompe-l'œil, John Frederick Peto was largely forgotten after his death. Pictures painted by him have been attributed to his better known painter colleague William Michael Harnett . Even before his death in 1907, some pictures by Peto appeared on the art market under the name of Harnett.
It was only through Alfred Frankenstein's research on trompe-l'œil in the late 1940s that Peto became known again. Today he is considered the most original successor and one of the most important American still life painters of the 19th century, especially because of the differences in his technique compared to Harnett.
supporting documents
- ↑ a b c d e f g Nanette V. Maciejunes: "John Frederick Peto." In: Stephan Koja: America. The New World in 19th Century Pictures. Prestel-Verlag 1999; Pp. 267-268. ISBN 3-7913-2051-3
- ^ A b "John Frederick Peto" In: Matthew Baigell: Dictionary of American Art. Harper & Row, 1979; Pp. 273-274. ISBN 0-06-433254-3 .
- ↑ Thomas W. Gaethgens: Pictures from the New World. American painting of the 18th and 19th centuries Prestel, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-7913-0879-3 , p. 313.
- ↑ a b c Urgency and Illusion. In: Stephan Koja: America. The New World in 19th Century Pictures. Prestel-Verlag 1999; Pp. 138-139. ISBN 3-7913-2051-3
- ↑ Kurt W. Forster: Image and subject: American still life of the late 19th century. In: Thomas W. Gaethgens: Pictures from the New World. American painting of the 18th and 19th centuries Prestel, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-7913-0879-3 , pp. 100–107.
literature
- John Wilmerding: The art of John F. Peto and the Idea of Still-life painting in ninetheenth-century America. National Gallery of Art, 1983.
- Alfred Frankenstein: Catalog of the Exhibition with a Critical Biography by Alfred Frankenstein. The Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, 1950.
- Alfred Victor Frankenstein: After the hunt: William Harnett and other American still life painters, 1870-1900. Revised new edition. University of California Press, Berkeley 1969.
- Stephan Koja: America. The New World in 19th Century Pictures. Prestel-Verlag 1999. ISBN 3-7913-2051-3
- "John Frederick Peto" In: Matthew Baigell: Dictionary of American Art. Harper & Row, 1979; Pp. 273-274. ISBN 0-06-433254-3 .
Web links
- John Frederick Peto in the Artcyclopedia
- Peto Gallery at MuseumSyndicate
- John Frederick Peto And Peto Family Papers Online at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Peto, John Frederick |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Peto, John F. |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 21, 1854 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Philadelphia |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 23, 1907 |
| Place of death | New York City |