(Possibly) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1814, no. 184. Hagerstown, Maryland, Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, August 1991-February 1992.
Provenance
The artist. Dr. Benjamin Lee, Oak Hill, Prince George's County, Maryland, gift from the above. Eleanor Belt Lee, wife of the above, 1863. Violetta Harding, daughter of the above, 1865. Elenora Belt, sister of the above, 1910. Benjamin Lee Belt, son of the above, 1915. William Seton Belt, brother of the above, 1935. Fredus Proctor, Shady Side, Maryland, 1959. Sale: Robert Campbell's Auction, Annapolis, Maryland, circa early 1970s. Eric Young, Crownsville, Maryland, acquired from the above. Sale: Harris Auction Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland, 14 June 1987 (as Early Still Life on Panel ). John's Antiques, Baltimore, Maryland, 1987. Private collection, acquired from the above, 1989. Private collection.
Notes
As one of the first artists to focus exclusively on still lifes, Peale is arguably the finest and most important painter of this genre in the nation's history. Between 1812 and 1824 Raphaelle Peale painted just over one hundred still life paintings in Philadelphia, at a period when commissioned portraits were the foundation for artists working in America. Only two members of the esteemed Peale family took up still life painting in earnest: Raphaelle and his uncle, James Peale, and it was under their auspices that Philadelphia became the center of still life painting at the turn of the nineteenth century. Corn and Cantaloupe , a magnificent example of the artist's oeuvre , captures the intricate detail and delicacy of his subjects. His intentional choice of corn and cantaloupe is distinctly regional, while at the same time his depiction of the subject matter allude to some art historians a deeper suggestion of human physicality and sensuality.
In a detailed analyses of the present work, Professor Phoebe Lloyd writes: "As was his wont, Raphaelle depicted his plant material with botanical precision demonstrating an awareness of native produce and local horticultural practice. Corn and sweet potatoes (Raphaelle no where else painted them together) were native to the Americas. Although cucumbers and melons were long known in Europe, this particular melon was and remains a regional specialty."
"Raphaelle chose this particular melon to make two self-referential allusions. The Anne Arundel melon calls attention to the artist's nativity in the country where the seat is Annapolis, near Raphaelle's birthplace. This partially shucked corn subtly interjects Raphaelle's surname, which had invited visual punning on the part of the Peales for three generations. Note how the corn's husk is peeled away, only to rejoin the tassel of corn silk in making the initial 'P'--an effect that one cannot overlook after it has been pointed out, and is unique to this painting." ("Raphaelle Peale's Anne-Arundel Still Life: A Local Treasure Lost and Found," Maryland Historical Magazine , vol. 87, no. 1, spring 1992, p. 5)
Peale may have presented Corn and Cantaloupe to its first owner, Dr. Benjamin Lee, in lieu of cash for medical treatment when visiting Maryland in 1820 to 1821 in search of portrait commissions. Dr. Lee established the plantation of Oak Hill in Prince George's County, Maryland. The present work would have contained especially topical references for its first owner: "Lee had the practice of conducting his business from the dining room. The painting depicted one of Oak Hill's stable crops, corn and also a sweet potato, which together with corn was likely the principle food in his slaves' diet." ("Raphaelle Peale's Anne-Arundel Still Life: A Local Treasure Lost and Found," pp. 3-4)
On a symbolic level, the specific choices of subject call to mind the corporal shapes of the human body, an observation consistent with many artists' depictions of still lifes in different periods and contexts. Alexander Nemerov builds a case for a metaphoric, secondary meaning behind Corn and Cantaloupe : "As uncanny objects, the feminized corn and melon are identified with the artist's space...Raphaelle depicts the objects on a ledge that implicitly continues into the viewer's area. The lack of an edge...emphasizes the physical connection, the reversible flow, between the artist's space and that of the objects he depicts. The ear of corn, moreover, is one of the more visibly handled of all Raphaelle's objects. The extraordinary manipulation of the corn--arranged to rest on the melon, its husk delicately peeled and turned back at several points--underscores its tactile proximity to the artist's body. So does its vast scale. At some fifteen inches long, it is considerable larger than an actual ear of corn--an expansion that produces an unsettling, even overwhelming, sense of its proximity to the viewer's space. Finally, the way Raphaelle attends to the corn's physical presence--carefully distinguishing the torn and striated husk, the shiny kernels, and the frazzle of silk--gives it a phenomenological carnality. Like all of Raphaelle's still-life objects, the corn simulates the body thrown over there, into the objects of perception, where it becomes an uncanny figure not just of the maternal body but of the artist's own." ( The Body of Raphaelle Peale , Berkely, California, 2001, p. 154)
Raphaelle Peale led a relatively short life, yet he managed to produce a body of still life paintings that has seldom been equaled in sensitivity of composition. Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr. writes: "...of all the Peales, he was the truest and greatest artist. He had the finest artistic sensibility and intelligence, and despite his lack of self-confidence and ambition, he was artistically the most daring. In the end his art had the most lasting influence as well." ( Raphaelle Peale Still Lifes , Washington, D.C., 1988, p. 33)
