Historical Context
John F. Francis (1808–1886) was the premier still-life painter in the United States during the 1850s and 1860s. Francis was a self-taught regional artist who infrequently travelled outside his native state of Pennsylvania. However, his paintings have gained widespread appreciation with examples in prominent museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the National Gallery of Art.
During his two decades of success, his images were widely collected by prosperous middle-class homes and aristocratic patrons who used them as embellishments in elegant dining rooms and comfortable parlor rooms. His colorful and elaborate compositions reflected 19th-century American and European taste for abundance and ornamentation. The Dessert is one of his masterpieces reflecting this mature signature style.
General Composition
The Dessert is an oil on canvas measuring 25 in. x 30 1/2 in. (63.5 cm x 76.2 cm). It is a still life featuring an outdoor dessert course set on an elegant table with a wild mountainous landscape in the background. The Dessert foreground highlights the comforts and refinements of domestic life, such as elegant living experienced within civilized interiors. The landscape background contrasts and symbolizes the untamed and uncivilized world. It is raw and savage nature seen at a safe distance. Like a luxury cabin overlooking a majestic valley, The Dessert juxtaposes the finery and the wilderness of 19th-century American life.
Cake Stand
Dominating the scene is a pink-and-white porcelain cake stand with a gilded base. The upper plate has a round, scalloped border edged in gold. Its underside has a crescent moon decoration echoing the almond-shaped curves of the border. The convex and concave curves add visual interest to the cake stand’s utilitarian T-shaped form. The base is a gilded mass of rocks, shells, and scrolls. It is a 19th-century interpretation of 18th-century rocaille decoration, better known as the Rococo style.
However, while the porcelain-and-gold cake stand is a majestic centerpiece, the cake pieces atop steal the viewer’s attention. A collection of dainty cake pieces are arranged on the cake stand’s plate. There are several layered-cake slices, a few ladyfinger eclairs, and at least one roulade (jelly roll or Swiss roll). They are depicted as deliciously light and delicate. They appear moist and crumbly, as if freshly baked, sliced, and arranged for the viewer’s pleasure. They are mouthwatering.
Serving Bowl
To the cake stand’s right is a large pink-and-white porcelain serving bowl. It has a wide white lip, with a tall pink body. A white grapevine motif encircles the bowl’s mouth and plays against the bowl’s solid nature with its delicate and sinuous lines. The grapevine decoration marks the bowl as a nod to Neoclassical ideas and alludes to Bacchus and the pleasures of wine in late Summer. Another Summer product is strawberries, which fill the serving bowl to the brim. They appear vividly red and deliciously ripe while brightening the painting’s color scheme.
Shallow Bowl
More strawberries fill a smaller and shallower individual bowl to the right. This smaller bowl is simpler in design. It has a plain white body with a substantial gilt rim. Its simplistic but dignified modernity would fit into any classic home today. Three other small bowls surround the serving bowl and imply that a total of four diners will partake in this dessert course.
Silver Spoons
Curiously, John F. Francis has included only two silver spoons free in the composition. One spoon is within the serving bowl. One is inside the sugar basin to the left, and two more are unoccupied. Perhaps the two occupied spoons will be re-utilized by the third and fourth diner? This reutilization implies an unforeseen informality in the composition because the most etiquette-conscious host or hostess would have four spoons specifically designated to the four diners, and two additional spoons designated as serving spoons. Hence, Francis implies this dessert scene is a domestic family scene and not formal entertaining with guests.
It is such a simple and understated detail, but it reveals the scene’s context. This beautiful, and to modern eyes, formal, arrangement is not necessarily for a special formal event. It is simply a 19th-century family enjoying life with some good food on some good dinnerware.
Water Glass
In the right foreground is a solitary water glass. It is strikingly modern and could be a cup bought today at a modern furnishing store. However, if there are four people partaking in this meal, where are the other three glasses? Francis is clearly not aiming for a realistic depiction of a dessert scene but for a more picturesque layout because three additional glasses would visually clutter the table. He is aiming for effect and scenery, not for realism and practicality.
Glass Pitcher
This deviation from realism is further added by the pitcher to the far left foreground. If the glass in the far right has clear water, why does the pitcher have some darker liquid inside? It appears to be milk or perhaps some creamy punch. Regardless, it is not the same liquid as the water in the glass. It would be perhaps too logical or too boring to showcase another glass vessel with transparent water, so Francis presents a glass vessel with an opaque liquid. He is playing with similar materials of vessels but different light interactions with their contents. Francis is therefore showcasing his passion for different textures and materials.
Optical Illusion
John F. Francis was a skillful painter, especially in his ability to capture the reflection of colors in his objects. The sugar basin, in the mid-left foreground, is a white porcelain item with gilt edging. However, it has massive patches of pinkish red on its lip and base. These red patches are caused by a reflection of the red napkin underneath the sugar basin.
A similar effect is seen on the empty shallow bowl to the right of the sugar basin. There are also small hints of red on the large silver spoon in front. Francis, therefore, expertly portrays the optical illusion of items capturing and reflecting surrounding colors.
Romantic Landscape
The background is an interesting partnership of foliage and landscape. About 80 percent of the background is dark foliage. As the foliage approaches the right side of the canvas, its leaves become more apparent, and its shadows recede. The leaves appear to be some creeping vine like English Ivy. Its growth along the wall implies the dessert scene is held in an outdoor but cultivated space like a garden gazebo or conservatory.
The distant landscape on the far right background reveals the uncultivated wilds of nature. A solitary tree rises in the dusky sky as a dark, shadowy mountain looms upon the horizon. Pink and grey clouds sweep across the sky, reminiscent of English Romantic landscape painters like John Constable and J. M. W. Turner.
Comfortable Finery
This emotionally charged landscape is a small vignette of the world beyond the dessert table. Does it beckon the viewer for further exploration or does it reassure the viewer to remain comfortable in civilized pleasures? With the monumental scale of the dessert scene and miniscule size of the landscape, it is easily suggested that John F. Francis is promoting domestic bliss. He is relishing the finery of a comfortable life in late 19th-century Pennsylvania. The Gilded Age has never looked so delicious!