Still Life with Melon, Grapes, Peaches, Pears and Black Raspberries

William Mason Brown, along with other artists such as Levi Wells Prentice and Martin Johnson Heade, was among an elite group of artists equally adept at landscape and still life painting in the 19th Century. A native of New York, Brown decided early on in his career to focus primarily on still life painting. After 1869 his focus shifted to fruit and floral still lifes exclusively. In Still Life with Melon, Grapes, Peaches, Pears and Black Raspberries, Brown has created a contemplative work so precisely and meticulously detailed that the intrigued viewer is enticed to ponder the shape and form of each fruit and leaf. The present work, with its brilliant medley of textures and color, epitomizes the important hallmarks of 19th Century American still-life painting.