Just Dessert 1891

William Michael Harnett created this oil on canvas still life, Just Dessert, around 1890. It shows a collection of objects – pewter, copper, glass, and fruit – arranged on a marble tabletop. Harnett made his career painting illusionistic still lifes, often featuring everyday objects. Here, he’s included things that might have been found in a middle-class home. The broken coconut and peeled grapes suggest a scene of casual domesticity, but the classical references and careful composition elevate it beyond the everyday. Paintings like this were made for a growing urban population with money to spend on art, and it reflects the social and economic conditions of a rapidly industrializing America. To understand the work better, look into the popular culture of the period, and the growth of institutions such as museums that helped shape artistic taste. We can then consider the painting not just as an aesthetic object, but as a product of its time.