The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 17, 2022

Memento Mori, "To This Favour"

1879

William Michael Harnett

(American, 1848-1892)

America, 19th century

Oil on canvas

Framed: 77.9 x 98.4 x 8.6 cm (30 11/16 x 38 3/4 x 3 3/8 in.); Unframed: 61.3 x 81.5 cm (24 1/8 x 32 1/16 in.)

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 1965.235

Location

207 American Realism

Fun Fact

Harnett’s family left Ireland during the potato famine and emigrated to the United States.

Description

The Latin term memento mori describes a traditional subject in art that addresses mortality. In Harnett’s example, the extinguished candle, spent hourglass, and skull symbolize death. A quote from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, inscribed on the inside cover of a tattered book, reinforces the theme. It comes from the play’s famed graveyard scene where Hamlet discovers a skull and grimly ponders his beloved Ophelia, ironically unaware that she is already dead. The "paint" in the quote not only refers to Ophelia’s makeup, but also wittily evokes the artifice of Harnett’s picture.

Inscriptions

Inscription

signed lower right: WMHARNETT / 1879 [WMH in monogram].

Provenance
1965-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
-1965
(Kennedy Galleries, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)1 1

Provenance Footnotes

1 1There is no record of this painting's provenance prior to the Kennedy Galleries, and the Kennedy Galleries records at the Archives of American Art (A1993-022, box 6) contain no relevant information. It is possible that the canvas appeared in Paintings of the Late W.M. Harnett on Exhibition, held at Earle’s Galleries, Philadelphia, in 1892, as catalog no. 10, A Tribute to Shakespeare.
Citations
Harnett, William Michael, and E. T. Snow. Paintings of the Late W.M. Harnett: On Exhibition, Earle's Galleries. Philadelphia: Earle's Galleries, 1892. 
The Kennedy Quarterly 5:2 (Jan. 1965).
Arendsee, M., and M. Steinman-Arendsee. "Take the CAN disability aesthetics tour, at the Cleveland Museum of art." CAN Journal (Winter 2019/20): 76-87. Mentioned p. 80
Exhibition history

Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, The Reality of Appearance: The Trompe L'Oeil Tradition in American Painting (21 March-3 May 1970); traveled to New York, Whitney Museum of American Art (19 May-5 July 1970); (not shown at Berkeley and Detroit), cat. no. 28, pp. 6-9, 56-93, listed p. 64, illus. p. 65 as Memento Mori-"To This Favour."

Tulsa, Philbrook Art Center, Painters of the Humble Truth: Masterpieces of American Still Life, 1801-1939 (27 September-1 November 1981); traveled to Oakland, Oakland Museum of Art (8 December 1981-24 January 1982); Baltimore, Baltimore Museum of Art (2 March-25 April 1982), illus. p. 156, fig. 8.4 as Memento Mori-"To This Favour," pp. 153-207, 292.

New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, William M. Harnett (14 March-14 June 1992); traveled to Fort Worth, Amon Carter Museum (18 July-18 October 1992); San Francisco, The Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco (14 November 1992-14 February 1993); Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art (14 March-13 June 1993), cat. no. 12, illus. p. 10, plate 12, pp. xiv-xvi, 148-159 (John Wilmerding "Notes of Change"), detail illus. p. 252, pp. 252-263 (Chad Mandeles, "Grave Counsel"), pp. 309-314 (Thayer Tolles Mickel "Chronology).

Year in Review: 1965. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 27-November 14, 1965).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1965.235