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Artist or Maker: Joseph Decker (1853-1924)

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Provenance: The artist.
By descent in the artist's family.

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Exhibited: New York, Coe Kerr Gallery, Joseph Decker Still Lifes, Landscapes and Images of Youth, May 17-June 11, 1988, no. IX, illustrated.

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Literature: Coe Kerr Gallery, Joseph Decker Still Lifes, Landscapes and Images of Youth, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1988, no. IX, illustrated.

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Notes: Joseph Decker, whose work ranks among the finest American still-lifes of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, captured the simplest objects with sincerity and profoundness.

According to William H. Gerdts, "[A] characteristic in Decker's late still lifes is his preference for small and humble subjects. While a few of these late pictures continue his investigation of the peach, and even melons occasionally appear, for the most part the fruit he chose to display are small: grapes, cherries, plums, gooseberries and especially strawberries, which he investigated numerous times, obviously enjoying the pulpy forms as well as the bright, ripe red color." (Coe Kerr Gallery, Joseph Decker, Still Lifes, Landscapes and Images of Youth, New York, 1988, n.p.)