Charles Alfred Meurer
American, born Germany, 1865–1955
Still Life with Currency
INV-1579
Charles Alfred Meurer
American, born Germany, 1865–19551895
Still Life with Currency
Charles Alfred Meurer American, born Germany, 1865–1955 →Realismpaintingamerican arts
Date
1895
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
25.4 × 55.9 cm (10 × 22 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Estate of Frederick W. Renshaw
Born in Germany and raised in Ohio, Charles Alfred Meurer began painting hyperrealistic, or trompe l’oeil, compositions like Still Life with Currency after seeing examples of the illusionistic genre by fellow American artist William Michael Harnett in the 1880s. Meurer exactingly rendered a set of metal, wax, and paper objects against a wooden panel, complete with graining, gouges, and a prominent splinter that secures a newspaper fragment. Legible in the clipping is the phrase “Counterfeiters Caught,” a humorous comment on the artist’s own skills of verisimilitude.
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