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A crusty piece of bread, a short glass of water, a black top hat, a pink conch shell, more than a dozen books, and papers are crammed into an arched alcove in this nearly square still life painting. Lining the bottom edge of the alcove, the long, thin spine of a brown book is printed with the title, “CHOICE CRITICISM ON THE EXHIBITIONS AT PHILADELPHIA” in gold against a red background. To our right, a red portfolio holds a sheaf of loose papers under a thick book titled “LIVES OF THE PAINTERS.” A crusty hunk of bread and a black-handled knife sit on a ceramic plate on the thick book. To our left, two calling cards with handwritten notes lean on the short glass of water. Both are addressed to “Palette” and one is an invitation to visit after tea and other asks about a debt of five dollars. The glass holds open the pages of a book propped against the niche, and the title page reads, “ADVANTAGES OF POVERTY THIRD PART.” The title of a second book behind the glass, missing its cover, reads, “PLEASURES OF HOPE,” though the page is ripped through the word “hope.” The light green, brown, or red spines of a row of books behind this, along the back of the niche, are titled, from left to right: “CHEYENE ON VEGETABLE DIET,” then “MISERIES OF LIFE” to our left, and “BURTONS ANATOMY OF MELANCOL” and “SIGNS OF THE TIMES” near the center. One of the two spines in shadow to our right reads “CALAMITIES OF AUTHOR.” A protractor tucked into a small notebook with a gray cover and red edges leans on the books near the center. More books are piled on top. Three of those spines are written in cursive handwriting with “Unpaid Bills,” “We Fly by Night,” and “No Son No Supper.” The conch shell sits along the edges of the standing books below to our left, with its gleaming rosy pink and golden tan interior facing us. A tightly rolled sheaf of papers wrapped with a sky-blue sheet rests diagonally from the upper left corner of the niche down behind the bread. What looks like a newspaper clipping is tied at the center with the headline “Just Published.” A tattered black top hat is wedged between the tightly rolled paper and loose, curling papers stacked above. One of the loose sheets is titled “LAUGHING PHILOSOPHER” and handwriting on another reads, “Perspective view of the County Gaot of Philadelphia.” Another newspaper clipping is affixed to the upper left face of the beige-colored stone niche. It has the headline, “SHERIFF’S SALE THE PROPERTY OF THE ARTIST,” and continues, “Consisting of One Cradle, One Blanket, Two pair of Ruffles, Petticoat, Silk Stockings, and Peck of Potatoes. Four Pictures, of Roast Pigs, Turkies Decanters of Wine and Plumb Cake Painted from Recollection. Fall of the Giants, and View of Paradise, sixteen feet by twenty. Comforts of Matrimony, odd volume. Short Cut to Wealth. Sermon on The Vanity of Human Pursuits. Philadelphia Jan 1st 1812.”

Poor Artist's Cupboard, c. 1815

Charles Bird King

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 65

Charles Bird King painted this still life in the tradition of trompe l’oeil, French for “deceive the eye.” An alcove holds the few possessions of fictional artist C. Palette: a crust of bread, glass of water, palette, and stack of unpaid bills.

Other clues also suggest Palette’s sad circumstances. A calling card from a cheap would-be patron, Mrs. Skinflint, invites him to visit her after tea. Another records his debt of $5. In the upper left, an advertisement lists an artist’s property for sale: a few articles of clothing and a peck of potatoes.

While the painting seems tongue-in-cheek, King and many of his fellow Philadelphia painters struggled to earn an income.

Dive deeper

Charles Bird King painted this unusual and intriguing trompe-l'oeil, meaning "fool-the-eye," still life to resemble an alcove holding fictional artist C. Palette's meager possessions: a crust of bread, glass of water, palette, and journal of unpaid bills. Two calling cards addressed to Palette bespeak his sad circumstances. One, from a parsimonious would-be patron, Mrs. Skinflint, invites him to visit her after tea, and the other records the artist's debt of five dollars. Several details suggest a more complex message, and that Palette's tastes and ambitions outstrip his modest means. The advertisement for a Philadelphia sheriff's sale of an artist's property at the upper left lists a few articles of clothing and a peck of potatoes—in stark contrast to the fashionable beaver pelt hat nearby—but also features a 16-by-20-foot painting called Pursuit of Happiness.

King makes pointed reference to the lack of support for the arts in Philadelphia, where he lived with little professional success from 1812 to 1816, and more broadly to the lack of support for the arts in America. In addition to the locale of the sheriff's sale, a sheet of paper on top of the hat shows a perspective view of the city debtors' jail. A tally of paintings sold in Philadelphia, which peeks out from the red portfolio at lower right, records a large number of portraits, the most popular but least creative genre of the period. A book titled Choice Criticism on the Exhibitions at Philadelphia, at the very bottom, is noticeably thin; that and Mrs. Skinflint's invitation imply the lack of art patronage in Philadelphia. Indeed, many of King's fellow artists departed the city due to a lack of commissions.

Object Data

Medium

oil on wood

Dimensions

overall: 75.72 × 70.64 cm (29 13/16 × 27 13/16 in.)

framed: 94.62 × 89.85 × 5.72 cm (37 1/4 × 35 3/8 × 2 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, Gallery Fund and exchange)

Accession Number

2014.79.24

Artists / Makers

Charles Bird King (painter) American, 1785 - 1862

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Detail Information

Provenance

Probably purchased from the artist December 1839 by the Apollo Association, New York; probably won at the Apollo Association annual auction December 1839 by Albert Christie, New York. William B. Bement [1817-1897], Philadelphia, by 1884;[1] (his estate sale, American Art Association, 27-28 February 1899, no. 121, as Assets of a Poor Artist); purchased by J. Sterling. Mr. and Mrs. William Morrell, Cambridge, Massachusetts.[2] purchased by (Victor Spark, New York);[3] (M. Knoedler & Co., New York), by 1954;[4] purchased October 1955 by the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington;[5] acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art.

[1] The painting can be seen in an 1884 photograph of Bement's dining room reproduced in Charles M. Skinner, Catalogue of Works of Art, Wiith Illustrations and Descriptions; Also, Views of the Summer and Winter Homes, Etc. of William B. Bement, of Philadelphia, PA., Philadelphia,1884: n.p., repro., and Chad Mandeles, "William Michael Harnett's The Old Cupboard Door and the Tradition of Vanitas," American Art Journal 18, no. 3 (1986): repro. 58.

[2] According to a letter (copy in NGA curatorial files) of 8 June 1955, from W.F. Davidson of Knoedler to Charles L. Glover, Jr., the painting was in the Morrell family for many years.

[3] Telegram of 8 June 1955, John Costano (of the Costano Art Gallery in Boston) to Corcoran director Hermann Warner Williams, Jr. (in NGA curatorial files).

[4] The Knoedler number "A5801" is penciled on the reverse of the painting's cradle crossbar, near the top center, directly above a gummed label printed with the same number in blue.

[5] The painting is listed on page 176, November 1955, Sales Book 17, 1953 July - 1958 March, in the M. Knoedler & Co. Records, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (copy in NGA curatorial files). The acquisition from Knoedler also included the exchange of several paintings that had been deaccessioned by the Corcoran.

Associated Names

American Art Association
American Art-Union
Bement, William B.
Christie, Albert
Corcoran Gallery of Art
Knoedler & Company, M.
Morrell, William Mr. and Mrs.
Spark, Victor D.
Sterling, J.

Exhibition History

1828: Second Exhibition of Paintings, Athenaeum Gallery, Boston, 1828, no. 127, as The Poor Artist's Closet.

1838: First Fall Exhibition, Apollo Gallery, New York, 1838, no. 167 as Still Life. The Property of an Artist.

1839: Paintings and Sculpture by Living Artists, Apollo Gallery, New York, October 1839, no. 50, as Still Life.

1839: Paintings and Sculpture. The Works of Upwards of One Hundred American Artists; Together with a Selection from Choice Old Masters, Apollo Gallery, New York, January 1839, no. 230, as Still Life. The Property of a Poor Artist.

1839: Paintings, &c. by Modern Artists; Together with a Choice Collection of Gems of Art, by the Most Eminent Old Masters, Apollo Gallery, New York, May 1839, no. 159, as Still Life.

1954: American Still Life Paintings, M. Knoedler and Company, New York, 1954, no. 19.

1958: Nature's Bounty and Man's Delight, Newark Museum, 1958, no. 21.

1959: Loan Exhibition. Masterpieces of the Corcoran Gallery of Art: A Benefit Exhibition in Honor of the Gallery's Centenary, Wildenstein, New York, 1959, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

1966: Art of the United States: 1670-1966, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September-November 1966, no. 159.

1966: Past and Present: 250 Years of American Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, April-September 1966, unpublished checklist.

1970: 19th-Century America: Paintings and Sculpture, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1970, no. 20.

1976: Corcoran [The American Genius]. Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1976, unnumbered catalogue.

1977: The Paintings of Charles Bird King (1785-1862), National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, 1977-1978, no. 42.

1978: The Object as Subject: American Still Lifes from the Corcoran Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1978, no. 1.

1983: The Capital Image: Painters in Washington, 1800-1915, National Museum of American Art, Washington, 1983-1984, unnumbered catalogue.

2005: Encouraging American Genius: Master Paintings from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Parrish Art Museum, Southampton; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte; John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, 2005-2007, checklist no. 9 (shown only in Washington).

2008: The American Evolution: A History through Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 2008, unpublished checklist.

2009: American Paintings from the Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 6 June-18 October 2009, unpublished checklist.

2013: American Journeys: Visions of Place, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 21 September 2013-28 September 2014, unpublished checklist.

2015: Audubon to Warhol: The Art of the American Still Life, Philadelphia Museum of Art; Phoenix Art Museum, 2015-2016, (shown only in Philadelphia), no. 19, repro.

Bibliography

1959: Corcoran Gallery of Art. Masterpieces of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Washington, 1959: 46, repro.

1974: Battersby, Martin. Trompe L'Oeil: The Eye Deceived. London, 1974: 91, 95 fig. 107.

2011: Strong, Lisa. "Charles Bird King, Poor Artist's Cupboard." In Corcoran Gallery of Art: American Paintings to 1945. Edited by Sarah Cash. Washington, 2011: 64-65, 256-257, repro.