Charles Caryl Coleman
Charles Caryl Coleman was a prominent American expatriate artist who lived in Rome following the Civil War. In 1883, a writer for the Roman News described his studio as “a scene from a fairy play [filled with] antique tapestries and medieval paintings and brass lamps and rich oriental rugs, which the magician Coleman has managed to bring together.” He incorporated many of the exotic objects in his studio into his still-life paintings of the 1870s and 1880s.
Where do you find cultural intersections in your daily life?
This painting fuses European still-life traditions with Asian objects and aesthetics. The blue-and-white porcelain vase documents the vogue for Chinese ceramics that entranced artists of the Aesthetic Movement, such as James McNeill Whistler. The Asian-influenced aesthetics which inspired these artists are especially resonant in San Francisco, which has historically served as a dynamic site of exchange for Asian/American culture and ideas.
Museum purchase, Roscoe and Margaret Oakes Income Fund, gift of Barbro and Bernard Osher, J. Burgess & Elizabeth Jamieson Endowment Fund, and bequest of William A. Stimson
\ Also in this gallery
