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Charles Alfred Meurer (American, 1865-1955)

Trompe l'Oeil Still Life with Currency, Pipe, and Pistol
Signed and inscribed "CA Meurer Esq./Cincinnati Ohio" within the composition l.c.,
identified on a presentation plaque, with a label from J.H. Strauss Art Gallery, New York, on the reverse.
Oil on canvas, 12 x 20 in. (30.5 x 50.8 cm), framed.
Condition: Craquelure, subtle varnish inconsistencies.

Provenance: Sotheby's New York, September 14, 1995, lot 24.

N.B. Cincinnati-based artist Charles Meurer painted in the tradition of the American trompe l'oeil masters, William Michael Harnett and John Frederick Peto. The artist traced his fascination with trompe l'oeil painting to seeing Harnett's still lifes at the Cincinnati Industrial Exposition of 1886 and other works by Peto in Cincinnati art galleries in the 1890s. Born in Germany in 1865 to American parents, Meurer was raised in Tennessee. As a young artist Meurer received a pivotal commission from Adolph Ochs, editor of the Chattanooga Times, to paint a still life incorporating the front page of the paper along with books and other objects relating to the newspaper industry. Successful with this commission, Meurer continued to elaborate on this theme. The artist included paper currency in many of his still lifes. (1)

(1) Frankenstein, Alfred Victor. After the Hunt; William Harnett and other American still life painters, 1870-1900 [by] Alfred Frankenstein. Rev. ed. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1969.