Showrooms

Fruit Still Life with Toppled Basket and Bird

Creator: ISSAC W. NUTTMAN
Offered by: David A. Schorsch - Eileen M. Smiles Fine Americana

Description
ISSAC W. NUTTMAN (1801-1872)
Fruit Still Life with Toppled Basket and Bird
Newark, New Jersey, circa 1840
Oil on artist board, 20 x 25 inches, in original gilt frame
Signed on verso in ink: “Isaac W. Nuttman / Painter”

This is a significant new discovery: the fifth known signed still life by Isaac W. Nuttman, the acclaimed artist, sign and ornamental painter. He likely apprenticed with Tunis and Nuttman in Newark, a manufacturer of painted and decorated fancy and Windsor chairs co-owned by a relative. The earliest mention of Nuttman as an artist is October 1830 when he participated in the second American Institute Fair in New York, presenting two paintings: “Tomb of Archimedes at Syracuse,” and a “fruit piece drawing.” In the 1845 fair, he entered three oil paintings. Nuttman’s earliest signed painting depicts a neoclassical bowl of fruit with a bird and butterfly n oil on canvas, inscribed on the back, “Painted by / I. W. Nuttman / Oct 29th, 1838,” with an old label reading, “Still life painting/ by/I. W. Nuttman/$1.25.” During the 1840s, Nuttman advertised in the Newark city directories and newspapers as a “Sign, Ornamental, Fancy and Chair Painter, Japanner and Bronzer” and house painter, offering for sale “Paints, Oils, Varnishes, Glass, Putty &c.” as well as “Ornamental Paintings of every description.”

Nuttman married Charlotte Baldwin, a distant cousin, on March 27, 1827. Over the course of their 12-year marriage the couple was forced to move nineteen times. Charlotte Nuttman died on August 23, 1836, and Isaac was remarried to Rebecca Thompson on October 15, 1839. Neither marriage produced children. In 1863, Isaac and Rebecca Nuttman relocated to 8 Coes Place in Newark, remaining there until 1869.

Two works, Still-Life No. 1 and Still-Life No. 2 are signed on the back with the 8 Coes Place address. Two additional Nuttman still lifes, painted on wooden panels, have similar tabletop compositions to ours and prominently feature robins. The back of Still-Life No. 3 bears the inscription “Painted by/I. W. Nuttman/Newark N. Jersey,” along with a receipt reading, “from Henry W. Clapp…dollars…for painting fruit piece/Isaac W. Nuttman.” The National Gallery’s Still-Life: Fruit, Bird, and Dwarf Pear Tree is confusing, having Nuttman’s signature on the back, partly over-painted, and the inscription “C. V. Bond/Chicago/1856” on a canvas stamped “Edw. Dechaux, New York.”

The 1870 census records Isaac and Rebecca Nuttman with assets of only one hundred dollars. Isaac Nuttman died of heart disease on December 12, 1872, at the age of seventy-one. This entry draws from Suzanne Rudnick Payne and Michael R. Payne, “Very Respectfully Yours &c/ Isaac W. Nuttman,” The Magazine Antiques, January/February 2010, pp. 252–57.

Provenance:
Collection of Albion P. Fenderson (1914–2010), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Modesto, California.

More Information

Documentation:	Signed
Period:	19th Century
Creation Date:	1840
Styles / Movements:	Other
Incollect Reference #:	815644

Dimensions

W.	25 in;	H.	20 in;
W.	63.5 cm;	H.	50.8 cm;

Message from Seller:

David A. Schorsch and Eileen M. Smiles are nationally recognized dealers in American antiques and folk art, specializing in weathervanes, folk paintings, Shaker furniture, and more. With over forty years of experience, they offer expert services in private and corporate collections, authentication, and auction representation—contact them today at 203.263.3131 or via email at contact@schorsch-smiles.com.