Straw Hat with Cherries

Born in 1829, Robert Spear Dunning was raised in Fall River, Massachusetts, and studied at the National Academy of Design under Daniel Huntington. Around 1864, Dunning shifted his emphasis from portraiture to still life and was a founding member of the Fall River Evening Drawing School—an unique establishment for a small New England town. He exhibited at the National Academy of Design from 1850-1880, at the American Art Union in 1850, as well as at the Boston Art Club. Dunning’s work frequently features abundant displays of fruit, often accompanied by sumptuously decorated household objects. In the present example, however, Dunning places a straw hat overflowing with bright red cherries in a grassy landscape before a folded jacket. Painted in 1867, the jacket may belong to a member of the army, referring to the recent conclusion of the Civil War and, perhaps, expressing a hopeful message of American bounty and prosperity in the future, as represented by the plentiful fruit.