Upset

Among German-born artist Joseph Decker’s specialties was the highly illusionistic representation of boxes or baskets displaying beautiful, fanciful content. Whether depicting dozens of apples or cherries, a variety of candy, or other trinkets intended to dazzle the eye and pique the senses, these pictures speak to the increased commodification of consumer tastes—for both sweets and painting—during the latter part of the 19th century.