Provenance:
Helen Peto Smiley, the Artist's daughter, Island Heights, New Jersey
Mr. and Mrs. Frank T. Howard, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, by 1965 until 1973
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York
Davis & Long, New York
Stuart and Mimi Feld, 1974-2013
Davis & Langdale, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owners, 2013

Exhibited:
La Jolla, California, La Jolla Museum of Art, The Reminiscent Object: Paintings by William Michael Harnett, John Frederick Peto, and John Haberle, July 11 - September 19, 1965, no. 55 (as Still Life)
University Park, Pennsylvania, The Pennsylvania State University Museum of Art, Selections from the Collections of Mimi and Sanford Feld, March 22 - May 24, 1981, no. 17, illus.

Literature:
John Wilmerding, Important Information Inside: The Art of John F. Peto and the Idea of Still-Life Painting in Nineteenth-Century America, no. 68, pp. 82-83, illus. (as Orange, Lemons, Nuts, Pitcher and Honey Pot on Box, probably 1890s)

Lot note:
Born in 1854 in Philadelphia, John Frederick Peto was an American master in trompe l’oeil (or trick of the eye) effects. Much of Peto’s work, particularly those that include fruits, vases, and jars, including Still Life with Almonds (Lot 20) and Still Life with Box, Orange, and Bottle (Lot 21), invites comparisons to the great French master, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin. While there is no record that Peto was familiar with Chardin’s work, it is likely that he was aware of Chardin’s oeuvre and might have even seen the French artist’s work in person. The present two paintings recall the work of Chardin for its simple elegance, celebration of quotidian life, and prioritization of light effects. However, Peto stands out amongst other still life painters for simplifying his objects’ forms, which grants them an abstract power without obscuring their appearance. Additionally, both of the still lifes here are particularly striking examples of the artist’s use of bright colors, a hallmark of his work.