This January I made a sort of pilgrimage to Pittsburgh, to see the Carnegie’s special exhibit “The Mysterious Bog People.” After paying homage to the Yde girl (it’s a long story that involves Seamus Heaney) I spent the rest of the day in the museum. In the art museum, in one of the long rooms with both paintings and furniture, I saw a particularly charming little still-life painting. I don’t remember the artist, but I think the title was “Still Life With Strawberries.” I think, though I am not sure, that the painting also involved some blue-and-white china.
Google has failed to retrieve an image that I’m sure is the painting I saw. Are there any Pittsburgh dopers familiar enough with the museum’s collection to tell me the name of the artist?
I am holding in my hand a postcard reproduction of what I am sure is the painting you seek, because I bought the postcard at the Carnegie. But the only link I can find is this, and the arrangement is different. On the postcard, the cake and the large bowl of strawberries are switched; the jug is still behind both, but not blocked by them; the teacup and small dish of strawberries are also switched; and there’s no urn. Also, there’s no shelf with vase in the background; there is a pillar, on the left instead of the right.
But otherwise, it’s the same objects and the same style. Levi Wells Prentice, American, c. 1890.
Our scouting expedition was a success, sort of. We found a painting called ‘Still Life with Strawberries’ in a long room with both paintings and furniture. It’s by Levi Wells Prentice, and it’s almost-but-not-quite the picture that Rilchiam linked to; doubtless it’s what s/he has in postcard form. Complicating the issue, LWP appears to have made several paintings with that title. The man just loved strawberries, I guess. Anyhow, I can’t find a link either, to my deep annoyance, and the Carnegie Museum of Art’s web page is down right now.