Card Rack with a Jack of Hearts

Description

Like modern-day bulletin boards, card racks were used to gather newspaper clippings, scraps of paper, and other ephemera in one place. Although it is unclear if the items seen here carry symbolic meaning, they nevertheless demonstrate the human desire to collect and recollect. Their tattered state and frayed edges further evoke a sense of memory and nostalgia. The illusionistic quality of Peto’s pictures makes the objects appear to exist in real space. Even the cigarette butt perched at the bottom looks ready to be plucked from the painting’s frame.

Provenance

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio (1973-); (Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) (1972-1973); Alice Kaplan [1903-1995], New York, NY1 (Probably 1965-1972); (Kennedy Galleries, New York, NY, probably sold to Alice Kaplan) (By 1965); Howard Keyser III [1904-1980], Island Heights, NJ and Philadelphia, PA, consigned to the Kennedy Galleries 1 (By 1947 - by 1965)

Card Rack with a Jack of Hearts

John F. Peto

c.1895

Accession Number

1973.30

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

Framed: 95.9 x 83.2 x 4.4 cm (37 3/4 x 32 3/4 x 1 3/4 in.); Unframed: 76.2 x 63.5 cm (30 x 25 in.)

Classification

Painting

Museum

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland, United States

Credit Line

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund