John Frederick Peto (American, 1854–1907)
Lights of Other Days
INV-2156
John Frederick Peto (American, 1854–1907)1906
Lights of Other Days
John Frederick Peto (American, 1854–1907) →Realismoil on canvaspainting
Date
1906
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
77.5 × 4514 cm (30 1/2 × 45 1/4 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Goodman Fund
Lights of Other Days, like many of John F. Peto’s still lifes, is replete with nostalgia. Strewn along a shallow shelf above a doorframe is an array of old, well-worn objects: candleholders with wax candles nearly used up, rusty oil lamps, and torn books. These discarded commonplace objects allude to older ways of life and fading memories. Peto specialized in trompe l’oeil (fools the eye) pictures; yet his soft-edged style is suggestive of the artist’s hand rather than the heightened illusionism employed by other trompe l’oeil painters such as William Harnett. Trained in Philadelphia, Peto stopped exhibiting his work at professional venues by 1890, creating compositions instead for local patrons near his New Jersey home.
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