id: 141641 accession number: 1965.235 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1965.235 updated: 2023-08-24 11:35:32.960000 Memento Mori, "To This Favour", 1879. William Michael Harnett (American, 1848–1892). Oil on canvas; framed: 77.9 x 98.4 x 8.6 cm (30 11/16 x 38 3/4 x 3 3/8 in.); unframed: 61.3 x 81.5 cm (24 1/8 x 32 1/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 1965.235 title: Memento Mori, "To This Favour" title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1879 creation date earliest: 1879 creation date latest: 1879 current location: 207 American Realism creditline: Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund copyright: --- culture: America, 19th century technique: oil on canvas department: American Painting and Sculpture collection: American - Painting type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * William Michael Harnett (American, 1848–1892) - artist --- measurements: Framed: 77.9 x 98.4 x 8.6 cm (30 11/16 x 38 3/4 x 3 3/8 in.); Unframed: 61.3 x 81.5 cm (24 1/8 x 32 1/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: signed lower right: WMHARNETT / 1879 [WMH in monogram]. translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Year in Review: 1965 opening date: 1965-10-27T04:00:00 Year in Review: 1965. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 27-November 14, 1965). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, The Reality of Appearance: The Trompe L'Oeil Tradition in American Painting (21 March-3 May 1970); traveled to New York, Whitney Museum of American Art (19 May-5 July 1970); (not shown at Berkeley and Detroit), cat. no. 28, pp. 6-9, 56-93, listed p. 64, illus. p. 65 as Memento Mori-"To This Favour."
Tulsa, Philbrook Art Center, Painters of the Humble Truth: Masterpieces of American Still Life, 1801-1939 (27 September-1 November 1981); traveled to Oakland, Oakland Museum of Art (8 December 1981-24 January 1982); Baltimore, Baltimore Museum of Art (2 March-25 April 1982), illus. p. 156, fig. 8.4 as Memento Mori-"To This Favour," pp. 153-207, 292.
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, William M. Harnett (14 March-14 June 1992); traveled to Fort Worth, Amon Carter Museum (18 July-18 October 1992); San Francisco, The Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco (14 November 1992-14 February 1993); Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art (14 March-13 June 1993), cat. no. 12, illus. p. 10, plate 12, pp. xiv-xvi, 148-159 (John Wilmerding "Notes of Change"), detail illus. p. 252, pp. 252-263 (Chad Mandeles, "Grave Counsel"), pp. 309-314 (Thayer Tolles Mickel "Chronology). --- PROVENANCE The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio date: 1965- footnotes: citations: (Kennedy Galleries, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)1 date: -1965 footnotes: *
1There is no record of this painting's provenance prior to the Kennedy Galleries, and the Kennedy Galleries records at the Archives of American Art (A1993-022, box 6) contain no relevant information.  It is possible that the canvas appeared in Paintings of the Late W.M. Harnett on Exhibition, held at Earle’s Galleries, Philadelphia, in 1892, as catalog no. 10, A Tribute to Shakespeare. 
citations: --- fun fact: Harnett’s family left Ireland during the potato famine and emigrated to the United States. digital description: wall description: The Latin term memento mori describes a traditional subject in art that addresses mortality. In Harnett’s example, the extinguished candle, spent hourglass, and skull symbolize death. A quote from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, inscribed on the inside cover of a tattered book, reinforces the theme. It comes from the play’s famed graveyard scene where Hamlet discovers a skull and grimly ponders his beloved Ophelia, ironically unaware that she is already dead. The "paint" in the quote not only refers to Ophelia’s makeup, but also wittily evokes the artifice of Harnett’s picture. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS The Kennedy Quarterly 5:2 (Jan. 1965). page number: url: Harnett, William Michael, and E. T. Snow. Paintings of the Late W.M. Harnett: On Exhibition, Earle's Galleries. Philadelphia: Earle's Galleries, 1892. page number: url: Elder, Nika. William Harnett's Curious Objects: Still-Life Painting after the American Civil War. (Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2022). page number: Mentioned p. 75; Reproduced p. 77. url: Adams, Henry. What's American about American art?: a gallery tour in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2008. page number: Reproduced: fig. 11, p. 12 url: Arendsee, M., and M. Steinman-Arendsee. "Take the CAN disability aesthetics tour, at the Cleveland Museum of art." CAN Journal (Winter 2019/20): 76-87. page number: Mentioned p. 80 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1965.235/1965.235_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1965.235/1965.235_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1965.235/1965.235_full.tif