biografía de John Frederick PETO (1854-1907)

Lugar de nacimiento: Philadelphia, PA

Direcciones: Philadelphia (until 1889); Island Heights, NJ (1889-on)

Profesión: Painter

Estudios: PAFA, 1878

Exposiciones: PAFA Ann., 1879-81, 1885, 1887-88; Brooklyn Mus., 1950; NGA, Wash., DC, 1983 (traveling exhib., went to Amon Carter Mus.)

Obra: BMFA; MMA; NMAA; Brooklyn Mus.; Carnegie Inst.; Cleveland MA; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT; New Britain Mus. Am. Art; Ariz. State Univ. Art Collection; Minneapolis IA; LACMA; Shelburne (VT) Mus.; Smith College MA

Comentarios: A major trompe l'úil still-life painter, he produced an important series of "rack" paintings (cards, papers, letters, and photographs pinned, often behind ribbons, against an illusionistic wooden wall or backboard) dating from 1879-1904, some of which were painted for Philadelphia business establishments (1879-85). Peto greatly admired William Harnett, whom he became acquainted with in Phila. before the latter's trip to Europe in 1880. Although Peto exhibited at PAFA, most of his career was spent in relative obscurity and he often traveled from Phila. to Island Heights, NJ, where he was able to supplement his income by playing the cornet at camp meetings. Peto moved there permanently in 1889 and thereafter did not exhibit at PAFA. He did however, sell his paintings to wealthy tourists who spent summers on the Island. In 1905, a Phila. dealer who had purchased a number of Peto's paintings began affixing the signature of the more famous William Harnett on many of Peto's works. In the late 1940s Alfred Frankenstein became aware of the extent of the forgery problem after visiting Peto's Island Heights studio; he then did a systematic study of Peto's work, thus disentagling the works of Peto from those of Harnett, and in so doing showed that their styles differed greatly.

Fuentes: John Wilmerding, Important Information Inside: The Art of John F. Peto and the Idea of Still-Life Painting in Nineteenth-Century America (exh. cat., National Gal. of Art, Wash, DC, 1983); Baigell, Dictionary; Alfred Frankenstein, After the Hunt, 13-23, 99-111; Gerdts, Painters of the Humble Truth, 179-86; Gerdts and Burke, American Still-Life Painting, 142-44, 156-57, and 248-49 (notes 1 and 2); Brooklyn Mus.; John Peto (exh. cat., 1950); Muller, Paintings and Drawings at the Shelburne Museum, 101 (w/repro.); Falk, Exh. Record Series.