The Old Violin Still Life Oil Painting After William Michael Harnett Framed 28"

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Late 20th century oil on canvas painting after "The Old Violin" by William Michael Harnett. The Old Violin is one … Read more Late 20th century oil on canvas painting after "The Old Violin" by William Michael Harnett. The Old Violin is one of Harnett's most famous paintings. The subject is deceptively simple; a violin, a sheet of music, a small newspaper clipping, and a blue envelope are shown against a background formed by a green wooden door. The painting is also a work of multi–layered meanings involving the relationships between illusion and reality, between old and new, and between the momentary and the enduring. At the heart of such meanings is the transience of time, which the artist illustrated by showing signs of wear and age throughout the painting. Even the songs, one from Bellini's La Sonnambula, and the other the popular song "Helas, Quelle Douleur", are concerned with temporal change. But it is the violin itself, now mute, but worn with use and still dusted with rosin, that speaks most evocatively of past pleasures. Beveled black painted wood frame.

William Michael Harnett (August 10, 1848 – October 29, 1892) was an American painter known for his trompe-l'œil still lifes of ordinary objects. Harnett was born in Clonakilty, County Cork, Ireland, during the time of the Great Famine. His father was a shoemaker.[1] Shortly after Harnett's birth his family emigrated to America, settling in Philadelphia. He was naturalized as a United States citizen in 1868. He learned engraving at the age of seventeen, and between 1865 and 1875 he made a living first in Philadelphia and then in New York City by engraving designs on table silver for firms such as Tiffany and Company. During this period he also took night classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and later, in New York, at Cooper Union and at the National Academy of Design. His first known oil paintings date from 1874; among them are studies of plaster casts of Minerva and Cupid and his first known finished still-life painting, Paint Tube and Grapes.

Dimensions:
21.5" x 1.5" x 27.75" (Width x Depth x Height) See less