For Sunday's Dinner

Description

Still-life painter William Michael Harnett excelled at trompe l’oeil, painting that fools the eye, through realistic depiction. In For Sunday’s Dinner, a chicken hangs in front of a painted door with its throat cut and most of its feathers plucked; a few remaining downy spots stand out against the puckered, pimpled flesh. The metal door hinges, on the right side of the canvas, frame the chicken and echo its form. The painting’s title and the rough, blemished surface of the door suggest a country dinner, the homey meal evoking nostalgia for a simpler past.

Provenance

John Hedges, Philadelphia, (not documented). Joann Kolodny, Baltimore, by 1953. L. Manuel Hendler, Baltimore; Baltimore Museum of Art, from 1957 to 1958; M. Knoedler and Company, New York City, 1958; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1958.

For Sunday's Dinner

William Michael Harnett

1888

Accession Number

111377

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

94.3 × 53.6 cm (37 1/8 × 21 1/8 in.)

Classification

Painting

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Wilson L. Mead Fund