Lot Essay
His Mug and His Pipe exemplifies the domestic still lifes that William Michael Harnett painted in the 1870s and 1880s. In this time-honored composition, The New York Times, folded and placed behind the mug and pipe, is barely legible. It is this compositional element, however, that helps provide insight into the work.
According to Laura A. Coyle, "Over the course of his career William Michael Harnett masterfully painted reams of dangled, folded, propped, and clipped newspapers. His brilliant exploits with newsprint as a formal device, however, have diverted attention from the intriguing study of what newspapers meant to the artist and his audience. (The Best Index of American Life: Newspapers in the Artist's Work, in William M. Harnett, Forth Worth, Texas, 1992, p. 223) In his character style, the artist has made the paper's title and its headline ('News From Washington DC') legible which "teased and intrigued his viewers but retained their narrative potential nevertheless." (William M. Harnett, p. 223)
Rather than focusing solely on the newspaper, he has added the pipe and mug to subdue the reference to the outside world with domestic attributes that would help his patrons recall the evening ritual of reading the newspaper with a pipe and a drink. "Harnett's contemporaries would have immediately associated these paintings with the roles the newspaper occupied in all aspects of daily life. The artist was active during an era of rapid and often difficult change--a time that embraced nostalgia but also acknowledged, and often commended, progress, Harnett's newspaper still lifes may have appealed to his followers on a psychological level because of the way they balance the old (objects softened by the 'mellowing effect of age') and the new (the daily newspaper, symbol of contemporary American life). Harnett's incredible fool-the-eye style made this harmony seem real, attracting viewers who were both nostalgic and progressive--potentially a very wide audience during the Gilded Age." (William M. Harnett, p. 224)
According to Laura A. Coyle, "Over the course of his career William Michael Harnett masterfully painted reams of dangled, folded, propped, and clipped newspapers. His brilliant exploits with newsprint as a formal device, however, have diverted attention from the intriguing study of what newspapers meant to the artist and his audience. (The Best Index of American Life: Newspapers in the Artist's Work, in William M. Harnett, Forth Worth, Texas, 1992, p. 223) In his character style, the artist has made the paper's title and its headline ('News From Washington DC') legible which "teased and intrigued his viewers but retained their narrative potential nevertheless." (William M. Harnett, p. 223)
Rather than focusing solely on the newspaper, he has added the pipe and mug to subdue the reference to the outside world with domestic attributes that would help his patrons recall the evening ritual of reading the newspaper with a pipe and a drink. "Harnett's contemporaries would have immediately associated these paintings with the roles the newspaper occupied in all aspects of daily life. The artist was active during an era of rapid and often difficult change--a time that embraced nostalgia but also acknowledged, and often commended, progress, Harnett's newspaper still lifes may have appealed to his followers on a psychological level because of the way they balance the old (objects softened by the 'mellowing effect of age') and the new (the daily newspaper, symbol of contemporary American life). Harnett's incredible fool-the-eye style made this harmony seem real, attracting viewers who were both nostalgic and progressive--potentially a very wide audience during the Gilded Age." (William M. Harnett, p. 224)