Severin Roesen 1815-1872

ACA Galleries, New York
Bernard and S. Dean Levy
Mr. and Mrs. George J. Arden, New York, 1970 (acquired from the above)
Berry-Hill Galleries, New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 1994

Easton, Pennsylvania, Lafayette College, Morris R. Williams Center for the Arts, Nineteenth Century American Paintings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. George J. Arden, September-October 1983, pp. 15, 32, illustrated pl. II

American Paintings V, Berry-Hill Galleries, New York, 1988, p. 44, illustrated in color p. 45
Judith O'Toole, Severin Roesen, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, 1991,
p. 135

Very good condition, lined; under UV: one small area of inpainting to left of white "dish" in the background between two of the grapes, one or two minor small touches in lower left quadrant background and in the sky. Some retouching along right top edge to address frame abrasion.
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In 1848, Severin Roesen immigrated from Düsseldorf, Germany to New York.  Providentially, his arrival in the United States coincided with a renewed interest in American still-life painting.  While members of the Peale family of Philadelphia (most notably Raphaelle and James) were among the first American artists to paint still-lifes as their sole subject matter, the genre had never gained much popularity. William Gerdts writes, "Between the death of James Peale in 1831 and the late 1840s, the nascent art of still-life painting was almost dormant in America.  Relatively few examples were painted or, at least, exhibited, and most of the artists that exhibited even an occasional example have remained obscure ... Economic growth in the 1840s permitted more refinements in the average home, and a still life in one's dining room was a part of such an improved standard of living" (Painters of the Humble Truth: Masterpieces of American Still Life 1801-1939, 1981, pp. 81-83).

 

Unlike the works by the Peale family and their followers, which were typically restrained small scale arrangements of fruit, Roesen's paintings were considerably larger in size and more complex in composition and were well received in New York.  Roesen's still lifes were inspired by late seventeenth and early eighteenth century Dutch compositions and the work of his Düsseldorf contemporary, Johann Preyer, with whom he shared many specific motifs.  These grandiose montages, and the often impossible juxtapositions of flowers and fruits of different seasons and climates, suggest Roesen may have worked from memory, employing his own lexicon of blossoms, fruits and vessels in varying degrees of dense compositional arrangements.

 

Roesen's still-lifes, which were popularized in part by exhibitions of his work at the American Art Union from 1848 to 1852, reflect both the aesthetic and financial landscape of the times.  His works introduced an iconography of abundance to American still-life painting and celebrated the pleasures of the physical world.  "While these often gigantic paintings of literally hundreds of objects have been interpreted as standard Victorian horror vacui, they are also the ultimate embodiment of mid-century optimism, representing the richness and abundance of the land, the profusion of God's bounty in the New World, his blessing upon the American Eden through this cornucopia of plentitude" (William Gerdts, Painters of the Humble Truth, p. 87).

 

In 1857, Roesen left New York, ultimately settling in the affluent town of Williamsport, Pennsylvania by the early 1860s.   While very little is known about Roesen's life, he seems to have found great success in Williamsport and was presumably painting the majority of his paintings on commission.  During this period he began to incorporate the surrounding Appalachian Mountains of Lycoming County as a backdrop in his most elaborate and ambitious compositions.  Still Life with Fruit in a Landscape is one of few surviving examples of Roesen's work to incorporate this landscape, which appears in the distance, below a dramatic sky.  A lush green tree, a decorative urn, and trail of roses on the left suggest the well-manicured lawn of a possible patron.  The still-life is composed in two tiers on grey marble shelves, allowing for an encyclopedic variety of fruit that Roesen paints with an almost sculptural clarity.  A white braided bowl brimming with strawberries, a motif often found in Roesen's larger still-lifes, anchors the composition while combinations of grapes and leaves lap over the marble tiers, interrupting the cool stone's hard edges.