new ACQUISITIONS
CHARLES RICKARBY MILLER
m iller gained recognition through watercolors of the Hudson River Valley, which he sold through the American Art- Union and exhibited at the National Academy of Design, and later through work as an illustrator for weekly magazines like Gleason’s and Frank Leslie’s. Throughout his career Miller also painted myriad studies of fruit in nature — especially peaches — inspired by the plant life he saw on his many sketching trips. These works are a prime example of trompe l’oeil still-life painting, an important artistic tradition in the US, where dazzlingly three-dimensional objects from everyday life often appear together on illusionistic tabletops. This recent acquisition, “Study of Peaches from Nature,” fills an important gap in the museum’s collection of 19th-century art. In Miller’s painting, two peaches sit side by side, a sprig of leaves artfully perched above them and a lone leaf dangling over the edge of a wooden table, which recedes into a shadowy gray background. The work is at once a masterfully convincing translation of ordinary objects into paint as well as a scientific examination of the peach as an organic form. Alongside the branch and leaves of a peach tree we see two encompassing views of this fruit (one from the side, one from the bottom), arranged like a naturalist might have done in attempting to document the flora and fauna of North America.
The son of a British landscape painter,
WilliamRickarby Miller immigrated to the United States in 1844, eventually settling in New York City.
William Rickarby Miller (American, 1818 – 1893), “Study of Peaches from Nature,” 1863. Oil on board, 5 3/4 × 8 1/2 inches. Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia; Museum purchase in memory of Michael Karl Malcom. GMOA 2020.89. Eugène Louis Boudin (French, 1824 – 1898), “Le Bassin de l’Eure au Havre,” 1893. Oil on canvas, 28 5/8 × 19 1/4 inches. Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia; Gift of Charlie and Teresa Friedlander in honor of his parents Jacqueline S. and Matt Friedlander. GMOA 2020.115.
It is an honor to add this painting to the Georgia Museum of Art’s collection in memory of friend and supporter Michael Karl Malcom.
Jeffrey Richmond-Moll Curator of American art
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