Still Life with the Toledo Blade by William Harnett - 1886 - 56.1 x 66.5 cm Toledo Museum of Art Still Life with the Toledo Blade by William Harnett - 1886 - 56.1 x 66.5 cm Toledo Museum of Art

Still Life with the Toledo Blade

oil on canvas • 56.1 x 66.5 cm
  • William Harnett - August 10, 1848 - October 29, 1892 William Harnett 1886

The newspaper seems to project out of this painting, and the matches seem three-dimensional enough to pick up off the table. With an uncanny sense of illusion, William Harnett established a type of tromp l’oeil still life painting that proved incredibly popular with his middleclass clientele.

He painted Still Life with the Toledo Blade for Isaac N. Reed, a Toledo druggist whose business often took him to New York where Harnett worked. The books, pipe, candle, violin, and a folded newspaper are favorite props in Harnett’s works. The newspaper is the September 17, 1886, issue of the Toledo Blade; later renamed The Blade, it remains Toledo’s daily paper.

We present today's painting thanks to the Toledo Museum of Art.  : )

P.S. Here you can read about another painter who painted in this super realistic way, see Luigi Lucioni’s still lifes looking almost like photographs!