(American, 1854 - 1907)
Palette: Still Life with Mug, Pipe, and Chalk Board
Oil on panel, 13 1/2 x 9 inches
Inscribed on verso: (in ink) “Painted by my Father/John Fredick [sic] Peto/Helen Peto Smiley”
Inscribed on verso: (in chalk) “57”
Provenance: The artist; the artist’s daughter, Helen Peto Smiley; purchased from Smiley by Alice Letchworth Glen, c. 1960; Estate of Alice Letchworth Glen, Chestertown MD
There is a long-standing tradition of artists decorating a working palette when they retire it, and it was not uncommon for collectors to commission such palettes as well. The Salmagundi Club in New York has one of the largest private collections of American artist’s palettes in the world.
About the Artist
(American, 1854 - 1907)
John Frederick Peto was born in Philadelphia in 1854. His father dealt in picture frames, giving him an early exposure to art. In 1877 Peto enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, where he met William Michael Harnett (1848-1892). The two artists painted highly illusionistic still lifes that inspired a whole school of American trompe l’eoil painters. Peto exhibited in the Academy's annual exhibitions for several years, and during the next decade he had studios at different addresses on Chestnut Street. In 1887 he went to Cincinnati, probably in pursuit of a commission. While there he met Christine Pearl Smith, who became his wife. Back east, the couple started visiting Island Heights, New Jersey, a shore resort with Methodist beginnings. In 1889 Peto built a house in Island Heights and devoted himself to his wife and daughter and to the quiet pursuit of his art. His studio, which still stands today, was filled with simple, often worn, objects that the artist painted over and over, refining his vision in groups of related compositions: small pictures of three or four objects, often a mug, a book, and a pipe, objects hanging on a wall or a door, rack pictures, and tabletop still lifes.
Peto's work is represented in the collections of the National Gallery of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Modern Art, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, High Museum of Art, Princeton University Art Museum, Yale University Art Gallery, Dallas Museum of Art, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Dayton Art Institute, Smith College Museum of Art, Timken Museum of Art, the John F. Peto Studio Museum
