Image size of this print is 21 1/4 X 16 inches with ample margins.

STILL LIFE by Severin Roesen (Amer., c.1815-1872) The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Known for sumptuous, highly realistic still life with a brilliant palette, he was born in Germany near Cologne and likely trained as a porcelain and enamel painter. In 1848, he emigrated with his family to New York where he exhibited still life paintings at the American Art Union.

In 1857, he moved to Williamsport, Pennsylvania and continued to paint detailed floral still lifes in the tradition of the 17th-century Dutch and German painters.

His studio was much frequented by his friends, who would sit all day with this genial, well read and generous companion, smoking his pipes and drinking his beer, and he was seldom without this beverage. . . . In one corner of the finished painting would always appear the faint outline of a beer glass, and when a customer objected to its presence, he would say, 'Why, do you not like beer?' and then take it out.�"August Roesen [sic], Artist: An Interesting Williamsport Genius Recalled by His Works," (Williamsport Sun and Banner, June 27, 1895)

A large number of Roesens were discovered in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, the booming lumber town where the artist lived from about 1860 to 1872. Roesen's pictures of nature's abundance found a ready market in the town's growing population (many of German descent) of prosperous merchants and lumbermen, who purchased them to adorn their newly built homes as well as taverns, restaurants, and hotels. One hotelier and brewer, Jacob Flock, owned more than fifty paintings by Roesen, which were presumably traded for lodging and for beer, the artist's favorite beverage.

Little is known about Roesen. He came to New York around 1848 and exhibited for several years there at the American Art-Union. He probably left that city in the mid-1850s, and settled in Williamsport around 1860. His whereabouts after 1872 remain uncertain.