Joy of Youth and Joy of Old Age: A Pair of Works

The present works are two of only a handful of still life paintings ever executed by David Gilmour Blythe, who primarily painted genre scenes. They are related to a pair of works entitled Youth and Old Age commissioned from the artist by Pittsburgh patron, Christian Wolff, in March of 1865 (There is also a third pair of related still lifes by Blythe, of which the Youth work resides in the collection of the Wallraf–Richartz Museum in Cologne, Germany). Of these works, art historian William H. Gerdts writes, "the two pair of Blythe still lifes are, to my knowledge, the only such moralizing still lifes painted in America at mid-century...In both pair, too, the formal means support the iconographic interpretation. Not only is there more bright, rich color in the youth pictures than in those dealing with old age, but in the former, the composition is centered upon a strong diagonal, which imparts dynamism and vigor; in the latter pictures, there is a stable balance of horizontals and verticals...which suggest calm and termination." (unpublished letter, 1989)