Artwork
Blackberries Spilling from Tin Cup
Blackberries Spilling from Tin Cup is an oil painting by the Realist artist Carducius Plantagenet Ream. It dates from 1878 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Overview
The work measures a modest size and presents a quiet domestic scene centered on a tipped silver cup from which dark berries cascade onto a wooden surface.
Blackberries Spilling from Tin Cup is an oil painting executed on board by American artist Carducius Plantagenet Ream in 1878. The work measures a modest size and presents a quiet domestic scene centered on a tipped silver cup from which dark berries cascade onto a wooden surface. The composition is rendered in a restrained palette of earthy tones, emphasizing the tactile qualities of metal, fruit, and shadow.
Subject & Meaning
The painting depicts a simple still‑life: a polished tin cup overturned on a table, its contents—deep‑purple blackberries with green stems—spilling outward. The juxtaposition of the reflective metal against the matte fruit invites contemplation of transience and abundance, while the orderly spill suggests a moment captured in the act of accidental generosity.
Technique & Style
Ream employed oil on board to achieve a smooth, luminous surface. Brushwork is fine and controlled, allowing precise rendering of the cup’s sheen and the subtle variations in the berries’ skin. The background’s warm, earthy hue recedes, directing focus to the central objects, a compositional choice reminiscent of mid‑nineteenth‑century American still‑life conventions.
History & Provenance
Created in 1878, the work belongs to the later period of Ream’s career, when he turned increasingly toward genre and still‑life subjects. Documentation traces its ownership through several private collections before entering a regional museum’s holdings in the early 2000s, where it has been displayed as part of exhibitions on American realism and domestic imagery.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Cadurcis Plantagenet Ream, also referred to as Carducius Plantagenet Ream (May 8, 1838, Sugar Grove, Ohio - 20 June 1917, Chicago), was an American still-life painter who specialized in fruit.
