$20,000
Estimate: $25,000 - $40,000
American Art & Pennsylvania Impressionists
Auction: December 6, 2015 2:00:00 PM EDT
Signed 'Rubens Peale' bottom right; also inscribed 'Presented to Louisia H. Peale/ Jun. 1st 1863 by R.P.' verso, oil on canvas
20 x 27 1/8 in. (50.8 x 68.9cm)
Provenance: Private Collection, Pennsylvania.
LITERATURE:
Charles Coleman Sellers, "A Painter's Decade", Art Quarterly, Summer 1960, pp. 139-151.
NOTE:
In the aforementioned article, the author quotes the artist's records regarding the present painting: "Another Copy of Uncle James' fruit piece, varied, red watermelon, white and dark grapes, &c." (p. 149). The painting was started on December 10, 1862 and finished on January 12, 1863. As the inscription verso states, it was presented to Mrs. Edward Burd Peale (Louisa H. Peale), who was one of Rubens Peale's daughters-in-law.
A similar version of another copy by Rubens Peale of James Peale's fruit compositions can be seen in the collection of the White House, featuring a white watermelon rather than a pink, and is mentioned in William Kloss, Art in the White House: A Nation's Pride, Washington D.C.: White House Historical Association, 2008, p. 367 (illustrated).