William Michael Harnett

William Michael Harnett painted still lifes so real they fool the eye: violins hanging on doors, pipes, tankards, newspapers, dead game and banknotes, each detail rendered with photographic sharpness. He was the leading American trompe l’oeil painter.

He was born in Clonakilty, Ireland, in 1848 and grew up in Philadelphia. He trained as an engraver and studied at the Pennsylvania Academy, the Cooper Union and the National Academy of Design, and spent several years in Munich. His After the Hunt (1885) is in the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and The Old Violin (1886) is in the National Gallery of Art in Washington. He died in New York in 1892.

A Smoke Backstage and A Study Table show his taste for worn, well used objects.