Cherries/A Still Life with Self Portrait by Robert Spears Dunning, oil on canvas, sold for $233,500 in Skinner's November 2001 Paintings auction.
This Robert Spear Dunning still life entitled "Cherries/A Still Life with Self Portrait Reflected in a Silver Compote," was the top selling lot in Skinner's November 2001 Paintings auction. The oil on canvas sold for $233,500.
Robert Spear Dunning, a native of Fall River, Massachusetts, was a one of the most prominent American painters in the latter half of the 19th century. The work, painted in 1871, is one of two commissioned by Mrs. George Washington Dean, a leading member of Fall River's exclusive social elite of wealthy cotton industrialist families known as the "Seven Family Rule." The painting descended through the Dean Family and was exhibited in Fall River in 1911 at an Exhibition of Drawings and Unfinished Works of Robert Spear Dunning. Artist and Dunning student, Bryant Chapin, reviewed the Dunning exhibition and described the painting as "composed of a gold lined silver dish overturned with cherries in front, with part of a mirror showing in the background."
"The detail and precision of Dunning's work is magnificent, and this painting is one of his strongest compositions," notes Colleene Fesko, Vice President and Director of Skinner's American and European Paintings department. The inverted self-portrait of Dunning seen in the reflection of the overturned compote demonstrates this quality of his work."
