Lot Essay
Within the category of illusionistic painting, or trompe l'oeil, depictions of letter racks hold a special place. Extending back to the seventeenth-century Dutch tradition, pictures of letter racks often focused on the formal elements of the objects and their placement within the painting. They are full of descriptions of material substances, inherently about detail, but, due to haphazard juxtapositions of objects, they also tend to convey an ambiguous message. A group of letter rack paintings created by the Philadelphia painter John Frederick Peto participate in this historical dialogue between convention and artistic innovation, for his rack pictures became increasingly concerned with objects placed on a two-dimensional surface and the juxtapositions of form and color. In fact, in works made later in his career, he heightened the expressive quality of the standard trompe l'oeil, further softened the edges of his forms, simplified his compositions, and raised them to the level of metaphor. Thus, Peto has a singular place in the American tradition of trompe l'oeil. He follows its subject matter and pictorial conventions, but his more painterly technique, with its obvious, expressive paint handling, belies the supreme intention of deceiving the eye. His technique also serves to enhance the metaphoric nature of these works.
Peto made Rack Picture with Telegraph, Letter and Postcards the year following his first depiction of a letter rack, Office Board for Smith Bros. Coal Co. (figure a). In keeping with the earlier group of letter racks, it is on a lighter colored wood, and still contains readable references to the original state of these objects, as in the copy of the Philadelphia Telegraph, or the letter in the yellow envelope addressed to Peto himself, which is tucked into the lower right portion of the rack.
It is difficult to know precisely how Peto became intrigued by this form of trompe l'oeil, since it is relatively rare in the history of art. In situating Peto within the history of the genre, William Gerdts maintains that the letter rack "was explored in the seventeenth century by the Flemish artists Wallerant Vaillant and Cornelius Gysbrechts. The rack tradition was brought to England from the Low Countries at the beginning of the eighteenth century by Everett Collier and a century later was explored by Raphaelle Peale, but by then it had become an international, if minor, artistic phenomenon." (Painters of the Humble Truth, Columbia, Missouri, 1981, p. 179)
Originally confused with his contemporary and friend William Michael Harnett, who was a master in the art of visual deceptions, Peto was "rescued" from the ash heap of history at the hand of Alfred Frankenstein, who received a Guggenheim fellowship in 1947 to conduct research on Harnett. Frankenstein visited Peto's daughter Helen in Island Heights, New Jersey, at the suggestion of William Born, who had written a survey of American still life painting. What transpired was a gradual sorting out of misattributions, and even forgeries, which were signed Harnett, but were definitely authored by Peto.
Unlike Harnett who lived alternatively in New York and Philadelphia, Peto did not remain long in the public, artistic realm after he started painting and exhibiting. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Peto was the son of Thomas Peto, a man who, among other jobs, sold picture frames, which may have fed Peto's artistic leanings. Philadelphia had a long history of still life, with a particular tendency toward trompe l'oeil, extending back to Charles Willson Peale's The Staircase Group of 1795 (Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) and his son Raphaelle Peale's After the Bath: A Deception of 1823 (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri). Peto studied at America's oldest art school, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts between 1877 and 1878, and subsequently showed in the Academy's Annual Exhibitions until the mid -1880s. Yet, for much of his life, Peto supported himself, and later his wife and daughter, by playing the coronet, rather than from living off the sale of his works. Despite commissions from local Philadelphians, for whom Peto made many of his rack pictures, and patrons outside Philadelphia, Peto disengaged himself from the art world. By 1889, Peto had married Christine Smith, whom he had met while painting a commission in Cincinnati, and he left Philadelphia. Since the mid 1880s, Peto had been spending time in the seaside community of Island Heights, New Jersey, playing his coronet at religious revival meetings. He designed and built a house there and worked in relative isolation until his death in 1907.
His later rack pictures stem from this time of isolation. These were painted primarily between 1894 and 1904. His earlier works were made mostly in Philadelphia, between 1879 and 1885. As John Wilmerding has explained: "The earlier of these works were clearly executed as more literal office boards or trade advertisements, often with engaging touches of humor, and generally came about as commissions from neighboring businessmen or friends." (Important Information Inside, Washington, DC, 1983, p. 208) Located in the heart of Philadelphia, Chestnut Street was a lively district with artists' and photographers' studios and small businesses. It was there that Peto rented a studio, and probably made many of his contacts for many of his commissions for letter racks and office boards. Peto probably met Harnett in the late 1870s, after Harnett's return to Philadelphia from New York in 1876.
Many writers have discussed the manner in which Peto followed Harnett's subject matter and conceptions for still life and trompe l'oeil since Harnett was the older and more experienced painter. John Wilmerding has described their interaction: "Peto and Harnett soon became friends and genial competitors, undertaking common subjects and compositions over the next couple of decades. But even from Peto's first dated works of about 1878, he practiced a looser style with greater attention to expressive textures and colors...Peto's style was personal and subjective." ("Notes of Change," William M. Harnett, New York, 1992, p. 155) The letter rack paintings, however, are a very different matter. Here, Harnett was the follower, as indicated by the earliest examples of rack pictures by each artist, which are separated by about two months. Peto painted Office Board for Smith Bros. Coal Co. in June of 1879, and Harnett produced the Artist's Card Rack in August of that same year. Unlike Peto, for whom the letter rack became a particularly favored subject, Harnett returned to the letter rack only once, in 1888, when he painted Mr. Huling's Rack Picture. A comparison between Peto's Office Board for Smith Bros. Coal Co. and Harnett's Artist's Card Rack from 1879 reveals Peto's softer style, despite their parallel use of such elements as labels torn from the wall, numerical ciphering on the wooden surface, string that hangs from the upper edge of the board and letters stuck into the pink cloth ribbon.
Peto painted Letter Rack with Telegraph, Letter and Post Cards a little over a year later, as its signature and date (November 1880) reveal. It is assumed that, like Harnett's 1879 painting, this letter rack painting is the younger artist's own, since the opened letter sticking out of the yellow envelope is addressed to Peto. Further, there are five major elements in this trompe l'oeil that Letter Rack with Telegraph, Letters and Post Cards stands in marked contrast to the more cluttered Smith Bros., Office Board for Christian Faser of 1881, and Rack Picture for William Malcolm Bunn of 1882. Even The Rack of 1880 (Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona), has over twice the number of elements in the composition than in Letter Rack with Telegraph, Letter and Post Cards. Since the artist probably made the picture with no particular patron in mind, it may relate to his later group of rack pictures made while living in Island Heights. These pictures have a more modernist feel to them, for while Peto maintains the general format of his earlier piece, with the criss-crossed ribbons, in many cases he omits inscriptions on envelopes and postcards that are included in the earlier paintings, as in The Jack of Hearts (Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio). They also have personal connotations. Like other rack pictures in Peto's oeuvre, elements within Letter Rack with Telegraph, Letter and Post Card, reappear in his later paintings, the small floral card tucked into the lower left hand corner of the rack actually surfaced among Peto's personal belongings in the family home at Island Heights, but here Peto effaced the greeting on it, which read "Many Happy Returns of the Day!" By comparision with other rack pictures in the earlier period, Letter Rack with Telegraph, Letters and Post Cards relates more closely to his later style of rack pictures, and perhaps was, like the later pictures that were more infused with symbolic meaning, also linked to his own biography.
Christie's is grateful to Jennifer M. Hardin for contributing this catalogue essay.
Peto made Rack Picture with Telegraph, Letter and Postcards the year following his first depiction of a letter rack, Office Board for Smith Bros. Coal Co. (figure a). In keeping with the earlier group of letter racks, it is on a lighter colored wood, and still contains readable references to the original state of these objects, as in the copy of the Philadelphia Telegraph, or the letter in the yellow envelope addressed to Peto himself, which is tucked into the lower right portion of the rack.
It is difficult to know precisely how Peto became intrigued by this form of trompe l'oeil, since it is relatively rare in the history of art. In situating Peto within the history of the genre, William Gerdts maintains that the letter rack "was explored in the seventeenth century by the Flemish artists Wallerant Vaillant and Cornelius Gysbrechts. The rack tradition was brought to England from the Low Countries at the beginning of the eighteenth century by Everett Collier and a century later was explored by Raphaelle Peale, but by then it had become an international, if minor, artistic phenomenon." (Painters of the Humble Truth, Columbia, Missouri, 1981, p. 179)
Originally confused with his contemporary and friend William Michael Harnett, who was a master in the art of visual deceptions, Peto was "rescued" from the ash heap of history at the hand of Alfred Frankenstein, who received a Guggenheim fellowship in 1947 to conduct research on Harnett. Frankenstein visited Peto's daughter Helen in Island Heights, New Jersey, at the suggestion of William Born, who had written a survey of American still life painting. What transpired was a gradual sorting out of misattributions, and even forgeries, which were signed Harnett, but were definitely authored by Peto.
Unlike Harnett who lived alternatively in New York and Philadelphia, Peto did not remain long in the public, artistic realm after he started painting and exhibiting. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Peto was the son of Thomas Peto, a man who, among other jobs, sold picture frames, which may have fed Peto's artistic leanings. Philadelphia had a long history of still life, with a particular tendency toward trompe l'oeil, extending back to Charles Willson Peale's The Staircase Group of 1795 (Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) and his son Raphaelle Peale's After the Bath: A Deception of 1823 (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri). Peto studied at America's oldest art school, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts between 1877 and 1878, and subsequently showed in the Academy's Annual Exhibitions until the mid -1880s. Yet, for much of his life, Peto supported himself, and later his wife and daughter, by playing the coronet, rather than from living off the sale of his works. Despite commissions from local Philadelphians, for whom Peto made many of his rack pictures, and patrons outside Philadelphia, Peto disengaged himself from the art world. By 1889, Peto had married Christine Smith, whom he had met while painting a commission in Cincinnati, and he left Philadelphia. Since the mid 1880s, Peto had been spending time in the seaside community of Island Heights, New Jersey, playing his coronet at religious revival meetings. He designed and built a house there and worked in relative isolation until his death in 1907.
His later rack pictures stem from this time of isolation. These were painted primarily between 1894 and 1904. His earlier works were made mostly in Philadelphia, between 1879 and 1885. As John Wilmerding has explained: "The earlier of these works were clearly executed as more literal office boards or trade advertisements, often with engaging touches of humor, and generally came about as commissions from neighboring businessmen or friends." (Important Information Inside, Washington, DC, 1983, p. 208) Located in the heart of Philadelphia, Chestnut Street was a lively district with artists' and photographers' studios and small businesses. It was there that Peto rented a studio, and probably made many of his contacts for many of his commissions for letter racks and office boards. Peto probably met Harnett in the late 1870s, after Harnett's return to Philadelphia from New York in 1876.
Many writers have discussed the manner in which Peto followed Harnett's subject matter and conceptions for still life and trompe l'oeil since Harnett was the older and more experienced painter. John Wilmerding has described their interaction: "Peto and Harnett soon became friends and genial competitors, undertaking common subjects and compositions over the next couple of decades. But even from Peto's first dated works of about 1878, he practiced a looser style with greater attention to expressive textures and colors...Peto's style was personal and subjective." ("Notes of Change," William M. Harnett, New York, 1992, p. 155) The letter rack paintings, however, are a very different matter. Here, Harnett was the follower, as indicated by the earliest examples of rack pictures by each artist, which are separated by about two months. Peto painted Office Board for Smith Bros. Coal Co. in June of 1879, and Harnett produced the Artist's Card Rack in August of that same year. Unlike Peto, for whom the letter rack became a particularly favored subject, Harnett returned to the letter rack only once, in 1888, when he painted Mr. Huling's Rack Picture. A comparison between Peto's Office Board for Smith Bros. Coal Co. and Harnett's Artist's Card Rack from 1879 reveals Peto's softer style, despite their parallel use of such elements as labels torn from the wall, numerical ciphering on the wooden surface, string that hangs from the upper edge of the board and letters stuck into the pink cloth ribbon.
Peto painted Letter Rack with Telegraph, Letter and Post Cards a little over a year later, as its signature and date (November 1880) reveal. It is assumed that, like Harnett's 1879 painting, this letter rack painting is the younger artist's own, since the opened letter sticking out of the yellow envelope is addressed to Peto. Further, there are five major elements in this trompe l'oeil that Letter Rack with Telegraph, Letters and Post Cards stands in marked contrast to the more cluttered Smith Bros., Office Board for Christian Faser of 1881, and Rack Picture for William Malcolm Bunn of 1882. Even The Rack of 1880 (Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona), has over twice the number of elements in the composition than in Letter Rack with Telegraph, Letter and Post Cards. Since the artist probably made the picture with no particular patron in mind, it may relate to his later group of rack pictures made while living in Island Heights. These pictures have a more modernist feel to them, for while Peto maintains the general format of his earlier piece, with the criss-crossed ribbons, in many cases he omits inscriptions on envelopes and postcards that are included in the earlier paintings, as in The Jack of Hearts (Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio). They also have personal connotations. Like other rack pictures in Peto's oeuvre, elements within Letter Rack with Telegraph, Letter and Post Card, reappear in his later paintings, the small floral card tucked into the lower left hand corner of the rack actually surfaced among Peto's personal belongings in the family home at Island Heights, but here Peto effaced the greeting on it, which read "Many Happy Returns of the Day!" By comparision with other rack pictures in the earlier period, Letter Rack with Telegraph, Letters and Post Cards relates more closely to his later style of rack pictures, and perhaps was, like the later pictures that were more infused with symbolic meaning, also linked to his own biography.
Christie's is grateful to Jennifer M. Hardin for contributing this catalogue essay.