Still Life – Study of Apples, William Rickarby Miller
I’ve linked here to a version of this image on The Athenaeum. The original is in the de Young museum in San Francisco. There is a high resolution version on the Google art Project, and a downloadable high resolution image on Wikimedia Commons.
The Google Art Project image, and the one on the de Young site, seem dark and over-saturated; the one on Wikimedia Commons seems too faded and desaturated. The one on The Athenaeum, which I suspect someone corrected before uploading, feels more natural to me. It is not as high in resolution, however.
I’ve used the Athenaeum version here for the top two images, and a version of the Wikimedia image that I’ve color adjusted to be closer to the Athenaeum version for the bottom two details.
I haven’t seen the original, which could well be closer in appearance to the darker versions.
Miller was a 19th century American painter, considered part of the Hudson River School. This simple, direct still life feels remarkably fresh and modern.
