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About two dozen round, pale green plums tumble out of an upended square wooden box onto a reflective, dark brown surface in this horizontal still life painting. Many of the plums have a frosty sheen and about half of them lie in a pile within the basket. The other dozen spill out of the box onto the wood tabletop. Most have stubby stems, and one, closest to us, has a longer stem with two browning leaves. The leaves and round fruit create reflections on the polished wood surface. The box was made by weaving broad sheets of light wood into a square. The layers are visible along the upper edge, which faces us. There are a few dark spots and imperfections in the wood. An ice-blue cloth hangs behind the box and crinkles in folds along the table. The artist signed the work in the lower right, “J.Decker.”

Joseph Decker

Green Plums, c. 1885

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 69-A

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 22.9 x 27.8 cm (9 x 10 15/16 in.)

framed: 55.6 x 63.5 x 7.6 cm (21 7/8 x 25 x 3 in.)

Credit Line

Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

Accession Number

1994.59.4

Artists / Makers

Joseph Decker (painter) American, 1853 - 1924

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Overview

Information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I, pages 123-125, which is available as a free PDF at https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/american-paintings-19th-century-part-1.pdf

Inscription

lower right: J.Decker

Provenance

(sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, New York, 9 December 1983, no. 80, as Greenings); (Berry-Hill Galleries, New York); sold March 1984 to Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, Upperville, Virginia; gift 1994 to NGA.

Associated Names

Berry-Hill Galleries
Christie, Manson & Woods, Ltd.
Mellon, Paul

Exhibition History

2008: Feast for the Eyes: American Masterworks from the National Gallery of Art, Academy Art Museum, Easton, Maryland, 2008, no cat.

2013: Art and Appetite: American Painting, Culture, and Cuisine, The Art Institute of Chicago; Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, 2013-2014, no. 8, fig. 8.

Technical Summary

The fine, light-weight, plain-weave fabric was primed with a light beige ground and painted prior to stretching, as elements are found over all the tacking margins except the top. The painting is not lined \rand the four-member, mortise-and-tenon stretcher is probably original. Infrared reflectography reveals the presence of extensive underdrawing outlining the plums, \rprobably in pencil, showing both their current positions \rand the positions from which they were changed. Paint was thinly blended, using a wet-into-wet technique. Fine gradations of tone were accomplished with thinner glazes. Elements of the design are found over all the edges of the fabric except the top. The painting is in excellent condition with only a few tiny paint losses.

Bibliography

1996: Kelly, Franklin, with Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., Deborah Chotner, and John Davis. American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 123-125, color repro.