William Michael Harnett Prints
1848–1892 · American · Realism
Wall art by William Michael Harnett, restored in-house and printed to order on heavyweight matte fine-art paper.
8 prints · printed to order on heavyweight matte paper · framed or unframed
About William Michael Harnett
William Michael Harnett was born in County Cork in August 1848 and raised in Philadelphia, where he worked as a silver engraver and studied at the Pennsylvania Academy before turning to still life in 1875. He painted the things of a man's study and tavern, pipes, mugs, books, newspapers and banknotes, with such exactness that the Treasury once warned him off painting money. From 1880 to 1886 he worked in Munich and Paris, where After the Hunt, a wall of dead game and hunting gear, drew crowds at the Salon of 1885 and later hung in a New York saloon. The Old Violin of 1886 was shown behind a rail to stop viewers touching it. He died in New York in October 1892, aged forty-four, and was forgotten until the 1930s. His trompe-l'oeil violins and letter racks print as rich, dark pictures for a study, library or bar.