Joseph Decker

Joseph Decker is best known for still lifes of fruit and nuts, and for portraits of boys caught in small moments of mischief. His early still lifes are very sharp and detailed, with apples, pears and plums painted close up and brightly lit. Later his style became softer and more atmospheric.

He was born in Württemberg, Germany, in 1853, emigrated to the United States as a teenager, and worked as a house painter in Brooklyn. He studied at the National Academy of Design and spent a year in Munich in 1879. After 1889 he moved towards soft-toned landscapes, possibly under the influence of George Inness. His work was forgotten until the historian Alfred Frankenstein revived interest in 1949. The National Gallery of Art in Washington holds his work.

Boy Eating Berries and Boy at Dentist show his playful genre side, painted with the same close attention as his fruit. He died in Brooklyn in 1924.