WILLIAM M. LANING (CHARLESTON 1837-1838, PHILADELPHIA 1841-1849, BALTIMORE, 1851-1860) SILL-LIFE PAINTING, oil on canvas, featuring a profusion of fruit and flowers, a small bird's nest with eggs, and a lone ladybug on a leaf, all arranged around a silver compote resting atop a serpentine-shaped marble-top table. Signed "Laning" lower right. Label verso for the Newman Galleries, Philadelphia. Housed in an old gold-painted molded-composition frame with modern liner added. Circa 1851-1860. 21 1/4" x 26 1/4" sight, 32" x 37" OA.
Provenance: From a private Gloucester Co., VA collection.
Newman Galleries, Philadelphia, PA, 1950.
Catalogue Note: William M. Laning was an American artist who worked in three important American cities during the second quarter of the 19th century, Charleston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. His was known as a genre and still-life painter, but he also worked as an ornamental painter or commercial sign artist. He is recorded as having exhibited paintings at the Maryland Historical Society in 1853 and 1856, the period in which the present work was likely executed.
Condition
Cleaned, relined, and revarnished c. 1950 by the Newman Galleries with minor areas of retouching to background. Minor craquelure.