by I grew up very close to the John F. Peto Studio Museum in Island Heights, New Jersey, but I’d never heard of the man or his studio. We remedied that with a visit while “home for the holidays,” which had the added bonus of visiting while the museum was lovingly decorated for Christmas.
John F. Peto (1854–1907) was known for his trompe-l’œil (“fool the eye”) paintings. Peto studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and though he regularly submitted works to the Philadelphia Academy’s annual exhibitions, he never achieved any level of fame during his lifetime.
In 1889 he moved with his wife Christine to Island Heights, where they designed and built an absolutely lovely home and studio in a mixture of Queen Anne and Shingle styles. They took in boarders and John found work playing the cornet at camp revival meetings; he often exchanged his paintings for goods and services.
Peto enjoyed painting ordinary things, like umbrellas, books, smoking pipes, and beer mugs; throughout the museum, pairings of paintings along side their original inspiration were displayed, which I really enjoy seeing. It was also interesting to see some of the same objects appear again and again in his paintings – he really seemed to love one striped mug in particular!
Peto’s peer and friend William Harnett was an artist using the same style, yet Harnett did achieve success in his lifetime.
At some point it was discovered that a Philadelphia “art dealer” purchased a bunch of Peto’s paintings and applied Harnett’s signature to it to sell them as Harnett paintings, causing the world to continue to know of Harnett but not of Peto, even today.
However, Peto does have works hanging in major art museums around the country today. We’ve added him to our “watch list,” so hopefully we’ll find some of his art in the wild during our future travels.
Peto frequently painted “letter racks”; these are boards with crisscrossing ribbons, in which one tucks letters, pictures, tickets, etc. The paintings are trompe-l’œil style, in that they attempt to look real, such as an envelope just opened.
Many of his paintings are unnamed and undated, suggesting to me that he kept at it for the pure enjoyment of it.
Peto died young, at just 54 years old, succumbing to Bright’s Disease, a kidney ailment. The home remained in the Peto family until his granddaughter’s passing in 2002. Because of this, the home does contain some pieces original to Peto, though really just a few rooms have furnishings and the house is more a showcase for Peto’s art.
