Albert Francis King, Late Night Snack, c. 1900
Francis King (American 1854–1945)
Late Night Snack, c. 1900
Oil on canvas, 16 × 22 1/16 in (40.64 × 56.04 cm)
Carnegie Museum of Art, Purchase: gift of R. K. Mellon Family Foundation, 83.3
It’s interesting to highlight the work of local artists, particularly when they surpass themselves, as A. F. King did in this somber still-life showing a late night snack of beer, biscuits, cheese, and mustard against a black background. A. F. King was a figure of local renown in Pittsburgh, who saw his work go out of fashion when the Carnegie International was created in 1896, and exposed Pittsburghers to more sophisticated work by European and American painters. He seems to have supported himself largely through portraiture, much of it based on photographs. The bulk of his work is rather pedestrian, but this painting stands out for its uncanny realism and for its emotional moodiness, created by contrasting appealing items of food and drink against a dark setting that evokes darkness and solitude. In the 1930s King was still churning out canvases, although well aware that his work had long been out of fashion. “There’s only a few of old ‘old timers’ left,” he told a reporter in 1938. “Make me feel lonesome.” What I find intriguing is that today King’s rather retardetaire still-life speaks to us more directly, seems more authentically modern, than much of the more advanced and up-to-date painting of the period.
Bibliography
Henry Adams, Masterworks of the Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, November l985, pp. 220-221.