Reference no: EM132192498

The exhibition is a relatively small one of some 22 American still-life and trompe l'oeil paintings done between about 1855 and 1904.

Describe the kinds of paintings on display, and how a visitor experiences them. How are they arranged? by subject matter, chronologically, or some other way.

Using detailed descriptions of a few, key paintings, describe some of the themes brought up by the exhibition in the accompanying texts. For example, you might consider the status of still life painting in traditional hierarchies of art.

How do different artists make still life into a moral lesson, a musing on time and death and/or display worldly knowledge in the objects depicted?

You may consider whether still life was considered an inherently domestic or feminine pursuit in the 19th century, and how both male and female painters expressed gender positions in their work.

You might describe the different approaches to composition: are the painted objects arranged artificially or kept in the context of nature, and why?