EDWARD E. HAFER (PENNSYLVANIA, 1843-1925) FOLK ART STILL-LIFE PAINTING, oil on canvas with likely original stretchers, an outstanding example featuring openwork ironstone compote overflowing with grapes set on a marble / stone slab bedecked with peaches, plums, strawberries, pears, pineapple, cantaloupe, and sliced watermelon on an ironstone platter, signed, inscribed, and dated lower right "Ed. E. Hafer / Reading 1866". Housed in a 19th century molded giltwood frame. Dated 1866. 15 1/2" x 19 1/2" sight, 20 1/4" x 24 1/4" OA.
Catalogue Note: While little is known about the background and artistic training of Edward E. Hafer (1843-1925), there are a few known portraits of his signed work as well as still-life paintings. He is recorded in the 1867 Reading, Pennsylvania City Directory as a "clerk", just one year after the creation of the present still-life, and must have decided sometime shortly thereafter to shift his creative efforts in a new direction, photography. From a financial point of view, it appears that shift was a successful one, for over the remaining four decades, Hafer is listed in the Reading City Directories and the U. S. Federal Census as a "photographer", a clear indication of professional sustainability. Whatever the impetus for the change, Hafer was clearly a talented, though likely self-taught, painter in oil. Indeed, by using a visual vocabulary of abundance, the present still-life captures something of the national mood just a year after the conclusion of the Civil War when new opportunities seemed limitless and the march of progress inevitable.

The important collection of H. Marshall Goodman Jr., Richmond, VA.
Purchased at an estate auction near Winchester, VA.

Very good overall visual condition with minor craquelure and areas of discoloration. Two very minor old punctures and repairs with associated inpainting to center background above grapes. Frame with moderate wear and discoloration.