Levi Wells Prentice (1851 - 1935). American Still Life Artist ~ Blog of an Art Admirer

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Levi Wells Prentice (1851 - 1935). American Still Life Artist

Apples in a Tin Pail, 1892

Levi Wells Prentice was born in Harrisburg, New York in the Adirondack region. During the early part of his career (1870's and 1880's), he specialized in painting the landscape of upper New York State. After Prentice moved to Brooklyn in the late 1880's, he turned his hand to still life, since Brooklyn obviously lacked the semi-wilderness scenery.

Brooklyn, though just across the East River, was distinct from the more fashionable and urbane Manhattan. Brooklyn maintained its own art association as well as artistic identity. Two of Prentice's contemporaries, Joseph Decker and William Mason Brown, were also residents of Brooklyn and well-known for their still lifes. It has been suggested that Prentice may have derived the concept of fruit spilling from an overturned basket from Brown's popular chromolithograph, Basket of Peaches Overturned.

It has not yet been concluded if Prentice deliberately tried to achieve a trompe l'oeil effect in his paintings. Trompe l'oeil is a french term meaning "trick the eye." The apples are brought to the foreground of the picture plane and all forms are most carefully delineated. The forms, however, are emphasized with dark outlines adding to the controversy of whether or not Prentice should be considered a primitive artist rather than a deliberate practitioner of trompe l'oeil.
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