Provenance:
Helen Peto Smiley, Island Heights, New Jersey, daughter of the Artist
Mr. and Mrs. Frank T. Howard, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, by 1980
Davis & Long, New York
Private Collection
Davis & Long, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owners, 1980

Exhibited:
University Park, Pennsylvania, The Pennsylvania State University Museum of Art, Bellefonte Collects, August 13 - October 22, 1989, no. 22, p. 21, 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. 57, p. 76, illus. (as Still Life with 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.