John F. Francis (1808–1886)

JOHN F. FRANCIS (1808– 1886)
Apples and Nuts in a Basket, a Sunset in the Distance, 1871
Oil on canvas, 24 3/4 x 29 1/2 in.
Signed, dated, and inscribed (at lower right): J.F. Francis / Pt 1871

EX COLL.: Dr. William Emrich, Maryland, and by descent; private collection, Baltimore, until 2006

Francis was primarily a painter of fruit still lifes (only two flower pictures are known). His compositions offer the viewer (and, of course, the owner) privileged entrée into a gracious world of ease and plenty. The artist played many variations on similar themes, arranging and rearranging studio still-life elements into carefully composed visual essays. Studio props—in this instance the table cloth, the wicker fruit basket, the porcelain ewer, the cutting knife, and the wine glasses—offered the artist the opportunity to display bravura technical skill in the rendering of various textures—fabric, ceramic, glass, fruit, and nuts. The sum of these, in addition to his sophisticated manipulation of color and shape in the creation of his compositions, secure for Francis a pride of place among the masters of 19th-century American still-life painting.