Exuberant
Folk Art Painting
America, 1840-1860

Oil on canvas.

Strong and unusual American folk art still life from the period of American Fancy. The composition centers on a floating arrangement of fruit, including a prominent pineapple, a symbol of luxury and hospitality. A bird in flight and highly stylized branchwork add movement and visual interest. The branches take on a suggestive, almost zoomorphic character.

Bold color and a confident, folk-painted surface throughout.

American Fancy was a cultural, decorative, and artistic movement that celebrated imaginative, colorful, and bold design, reflecting the youthful optimism of the new nation. It marked a shift away from restrained neoclassical styles toward artistic exuberance, delighting in whim, surprise, and sensory experience, and was driven by the era's fascination with imagination.

Relined with new stretcher. Scattered inpainting. Housed in a very good period ripple frame. Frame size approximately 27 ½ x 21 ¼ inches. Signed lower right “C.F. Miller”.

Purchased September 15, 1979, from Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, lot 30. Important provenance available upon request.