The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 25, 2024

Card Rack with a Jack of Hearts

Card Rack with a Jack of Hearts

c.1895
(American, 1854–1907)
America, 19th century
oil on canvas
Framed: 95.9 x 83.2 x 4.4 cm (37 3/4 x 32 3/4 x 1 3/4 in.); Unframed: 76.2 x 63.5 cm (30 x 25 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1973.30
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Living in a New Jersey resort town, Peto sold some of his paintings to tourists.

Description

Like modern-day bulletin boards, card racks were used to gather newspaper clippings, scraps of paper, and other ephemera in one place. Although it is unclear if the items seen here carry symbolic meaning, they nevertheless demonstrate the human desire to collect and recollect. Their tattered state and frayed edges further evoke a sense of memory and nostalgia. The illusionistic quality of Peto’s pictures makes the objects appear to exist in real space. Even the cigarette butt perched at the bottom looks ready to be plucked from the painting’s frame.
  • 1973-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
    1972-1973
    (Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    Probably 1965-1972
    Alice Kaplan [1903-1995], New York, NY1
    By 1965
    (Kennedy Galleries, New York, NY, probably sold to Alice Kaplan)
    By 1947 - by 1965
    Howard Keyser III [1904-1980], Island Heights, NJ and Philadelphia, PA, consigned to the Kennedy Galleries 1
    Provenance Footnotes
    1 1 Alice Kaplan was a prominent New York City art collector and patron.  Presumably, she purchased the painting from Kennedy Galleries, possibly in 1965.
    2 1 The circumstances of Keyser’s acquisition of the painting are unknown, but the scholarly record hints at two possible scenarios.  According to Alfred V. Frankenstein, Peto sold a number of paintings to James M. Bryant [1853-1923], of Island Heights, NJ, and these paintings were dispersed among Bryant’s son-in-law, Howard Keyser, Jr. [1875-1959], and Keyser’s four children:  James, Cheston, Mrs. William Wood, and Howard III.  Alternatively, according to a 1964 article about Peto's studio, there was "a Mr. Keyser who had bought paintings from Peto through the years for a few dollars”; presumably, this references Howard Keyser, Jr., who in turn could have passed ownership of the Cleveland painting to his son, Howard Keyser III.  We know for certain that Howard Keyser III had the painting by July 21, 1947, when Frankenstein compiled a list of the Peto paintings located in Keyser's Island Heights home (the Cleveland Peto is No. 7).
  • Alfred Victor Frankenstein papers, 1861-1980, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution [Reels 1376-1377].
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. "American Painting." Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, no date. Mentioned and reproduced (unpaginated pamphlet)
    Frankenstein, Alfred. "Harnett, True and False." The Art Bulletin 31, No.1 (March 1949): 38-56. Mentioned (unpaginated): Fig.8 as "Rack picture" www.jstor.org
    Brooklyn Museum, and Alfred V. Frankenstein. John F. Peto: Catalogue of the Exhibition with a Critical Biography by Alfred Frankenstein. Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Museum, 1950. Mentioned: p.48
    R[egina].S[oria]. "John F. Peto's Studio." Archives of American Art 4, No.1 (January 1964). Mentioned: p.8 www.jstor.org
    Stuart P. Feld, email to Victoria Sears Goldman, April 3, 2013, in CMA curatorial file. Mentioned: p.73; Reproduced: p.72
    Kennedy Galleries. "Recorders, Deceivers and Dreamers: A sampling of the variety and vitality of American painting." The Kennedy Quarterly 5, No.2 (January 1965). Mentioned: p.73; Reproduced: p.72
    Frankenstein, Alfred V. After the Hunt; William Harnett and Other American Still Life Painters, 1870-1900. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1969. Mentioned: p.xviii, 108; Reproduced (unpaginated)
    "This man's painting looks like collage." Sun Press, October 18, 1973. Mentioned (unpaginated)
    Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), and Detroit Institute of Arts. The Art Quarterly 37, No.1 (Spring 1974). New York, NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1974. Mentioned: p.100
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, 61, No.2 (February 1974). Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. Mentioned: p.74; Reproduced: p.53 www.jstor.org
    Hinson, Tom E. "Eddy: New Shoes for H." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 62, No.10 (December 1975). Mentioned: p.296; Reproduced: p.297 www.jstor.org
    Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Detroit Institute of Arts, and Toledo Museum of Art. Heritage and Horizon: American Painting, 1776-1976. Exh. Cat. Toledo, OH: Toledo Museum of Art, 1976. Mentioned: pp.7, 40: Reproduced: p.40
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 236 archive.org
    Wilmerding, John. Important Information Inside: The Art of John F. Peto and the Idea of Still-Life Painting in Nineteenth-Century America. Washington D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1983. Mentioned: pp.204, 243, 254; Reproduced: p.201 publications
    Dreiss, Joseph. "John F. Peto." Arts Magazine 57, No.8 (April 1983). Mentioned and reproduced: p.19
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. Reproduced: p.138 CMAHandbook1991
    Wilmerding, John. American Views: Essays on American Art. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1991. Mentioned: p.xvii, 297; Reproduced: p.299
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Still-Life Paintings in Gallery 222: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1992. Mentioned (unpaginated brochure)
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, and Alan Chong. European & American Painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art: A Summary Catalogue. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993. Reproduced: p.177
    Capek, Michael. Artistic Trickery: The Tradition of Trompe L'oeil Art. Minneapolis, MN: Lerner Publications Company, 1995. Mentioned and reproduced: p.45
    Pelfrey, Robert H. Art and Mass Media. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 1996. Mentioned: p.275; Reproduced: p.276
    Wilmerding, John. Compass and Clock: Defining Moments in American Culture: 1800, 1850, 1900. New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams, 1999. Reproduced: p.201
    Sims, Lowery Stokes. The persistence of geometry: form, content, and culture in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2006. no. 50, p. 188, color repr. p. 26
    Adams, Henry. What's American about American art?: a gallery tour in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2008. Reproduced: p. 87, & p. 102 - 103
    Wilmerding, John. "Images of Lincoln in Peto's Late Paintings." Archives of American Art Journal 22, No.2 (1982). Mentioned: p.9; Reproduced: p.10 www.jstor.org
  • The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA), Cleveland, OH (June 9-August 20, 2006).
    Cleveland Collects American Art of the Gilded Age. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 23-May 18, 2003).
    Cleveland, The Cleveland Museum of Art Still-Life Paintings in Gallery 222 (1992?), pamphlet which seems to have accompanied a small show of still-lifes owned by the CMA; the 8/92 at the end of the pamphlet seems to indicate that is when this show took place, but this could not be confirmed.
    The Magic of Still Life. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 4, 1986-February 1, 1987).
    Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, Important Information Inside: The Art of John F. Peto and the Idea of Still-Life Painting in Nineteenth-Century America (16 January-29 May 1983); traveled to Fort Worth, Amon Carter Museum (15 July-18 September 1983), cat. no. 189, illus. p. 201.
    Heritage and Horizon: American Painting 1776 - 1976. Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY (organizer) (March 7-April 11, 1976); The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (May 2-June 13, 1976); The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH (July 4-August 15, 1976); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (September 8-October 10, 1976).
    Buffalo, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Heritage and Horizon: American Painting, 1776-1976 (6 March-11 April 1976); Detroit, The Detroit Institute of Arts (5 May-13 June 1976); Toledo, The Toledo Museum of Art (4 July-15 August 1976); Cleveland, The Cleveland Museum of Art (8 September-10 October 1976), illus. cat. no. 24.
    Year in Review: 1973. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 30-March 17, 1974).
    New York, Hirschl & Adler Galleries Inc., Faces and Places: Changing Images of 19th Century America (5 December 1972-6 January 1973)
    Northampton, Mass., Smith College Museum of Art, John F. Peto (1-24 March 1950); traveled to Brooklyn, The Brooklyn Museum of Art (11 April-21 May 1950); San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor (10 June-9 July 1950); cat. no. 36, not illus.
  • {{cite web|title=Card Rack with a Jack of Hearts|url=false|author=John F. Peto|year=c.1895|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1973.30