Jefferson David Chalfant (November 6, 1856 – February 3, 1931) was an American painter who is remembered mostly for his ''

trompe-l'œil ''Trompe-l'œil'' ( , ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a two-dimensional surface. ''Trompe l'oeil'', which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into ...

still life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, m ...

paintings.

Biography

Chalfant was born in

Chester County, Pennsylvania Chester County (Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Tscheschter Kaundi''), colloquially known as Chesco, is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in the De ...

, but moved in young adulthood to Wilmington,

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

, where he would spend the rest of his life. Employed by a commercial firm as a painter of parlor car interiors, he began his activity as a fine artist in the early 1880s. Although he had no formal training, he quickly developed a fine technique. His early works are mostly still-life and landscape paintings, which sold well to private collectors. Chalfant exhibited at the

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Maryl ...

, the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the fin ...

, and elsewhere. In 1890, he was able to travel to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

for two years, where he studied figure painting under

Adolphe-William Bouguereau William-Adolphe Bouguereau (; 30 November 1825 – 19 August 1905) was a French academic painter. In his realistic genre paintings, he used mythological themes, making modern interpretations of classical subjects, with an emphasis on the female ...

and

Jules Joseph Lefebvre Jules Joseph Lefebvre (; 14 March 183624 February 1911) was a French figure painter, educator and theorist. Early life Lefebvre was born in Tournan-en-Brie, Seine-et-Marne, on 14 March 1836. He entered the École nationale supérieure des Bea ...

. This served him well during a career in which he painted

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

, portraits and other subjects, but it is his

s which may be his signal achievement. Smiling boy, by Jefferson David Chalfant

The Visiting Champion by Jefferson David Chalfant

His still lifes are painted in the illusionistic ''

'' (literally, "fool the eye") manner popularized in the late nineteenth century by

William Michael Harnett William Michael Harnett (August 10, 1848 – October 29, 1892) was an Irish- American painter known for his trompe-l'œil still lifes of ordinary objects. Early life Harnett was born in Clonakilty, County Cork, Ireland during the time of the ...

. Harnett inspired many followers, the best known being

John F. Peto John Frederick Peto (May 21, 1854 – November 23, 1907) was an American ''trompe-l'œil'' ("fool the eye") Painting, painter who was long forgotten until his paintings were rediscovered along with those of fellow ''trompe-l'œil'' artist William ...

, but few, if any, had Chalfant's technical finesse. Often, Chalfant's compositions closely follow prototypes by Harnett, but Chalfant usually simplifies, eliminating secondary objects and details. An example is his ''Violin and Bow'' (1889) in the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

(MET). Although he was only slightly younger than Harnett and Peto, he outlived both of them by many years, and continued painting until 1927, when he had a

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

. He died in Wilmington in 1931. The Connoisseur MET ap1978

A 2022 exhibition at the MET draws comparisons between the work of Chalfant, Harnet (as well as Europen ''trompe-l'œil'' painters such as

Samuel van Hoogstraten Samuel Dirksz van Hoogstraten (2 August 1627, in Dordrecht – 19 October 1678, in Dordrecht) was a Dutch painter of the Golden Age, who was also a poet and author on art theory. Biography Samuel Dirksz van Hoogstraten trained first with his fat ...

, Cornelius Norbertus Gijsbrechts, Jean Etienne Liotard, and Luis Meléndez) and the work of

Georges Braque Georges Braque ( , ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century List of French artists, French painter, Collage, collagist, Drawing, draughtsman, printmaker and sculpture, sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his all ...

Juan Gris José Victoriano González-Pérez (23 March 1887 – 11 May 1927), better known as Juan Gris (; ), was a Spanish painter born in Madrid who lived and worked in France for most of his active period. Closely connected to the innovative artistic ge ...

, and

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

. One example is Chalafant's ''Which is Which'', a highly realistic oil painting of a postage stamp with collage elements including an actual postage stamp and a fictitious printed newspaper clipping, hints at

Cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...

as well as foreshadowing the use of "faux collage" and

fake news Fake news is false or misleading information presented as news. Fake news often has the aim of damaging the reputation of a person or entity, or making money through advertising revenue.Schlesinger, Robert (April 14, 2017)"Fake news in reality ...

Bibliography

*Frankenstein, Alfred (1970). ''The Reality of Appearance''. Greenwich: New York Graphic Society. *Wilmerding, John (1983). ''Important Information Inside''. New York: Harper & Row.

References

External links

American paintings & historical prints from the Middendorf collection
an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Chalfant (no. 48–49)
Jefferson D. Chalfant holdings
The Metropolitan Museum of Art 1856 births 1931 deaths 19th-century American painters 20th-century American painters Académie Julian alumni American male painters American still life painters Trompe-l'œil artists Artists from Wilmington, Delaware Painters from Delaware Painters from Pennsylvania People from Chester County, Pennsylvania 19th-century American male artists 20th-century American male artists {{US-painter-1850s-stub