Still Life in Interior

1920–22

Preston Dickinson
American, 1889–1930

Preston Dickinson studied in Paris between 1911 and 1914, and, influenced by avant-garde movements, began experimenting with form and color in his own work. In Still Life in Interior, he depicted a variety of everyday items, including magazines, a sake bottle, a tea canister painted with Japanese figures, and a cup and saucer, adopting an exaggerated perspective from above to create the perception of overlapping, flattened shapes in space. He was also careful to use complementary colors, particularly yellow and blue, which create a sense of rhythmic movement through the composition. Dickinson achieved great critical success in the 1920s with works like this one, but died of pneumonia at the age of 41.

Status: On View, Gallery 271
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Preston Dickinson
Title: Still Life in Interior
Place: United States (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: c. 1920–1922
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Signed upper right: P. Dickinson
Dimensions: 71.1 × 50.8 cm (28 × 20 in.)
Credit Line: Through prior acquisition of the George F. Harding Collection; Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection
Reference Number: 2004.488

Menconi & Schoelkopf Fine Art: The First Year (Menconi & Schoelkopf Fine Art, 2002), cat. 9, ill.
Thomas Holman, “Preson Dickinson (1889–1930): Paintings and Drawings,” (Zabriskie Gallery, 2002), n.p.
Annual Report (Art Insitute of Chicago, 2004–2005), p. 16 (ill. p. 22).
Judith A. Barter, et al., American Modernism at the Art Institute of Chicago, From World War I to 1955 (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2009), cat. 77. 31.

Zabriskie Gallery, New York, Preston Dickinson (1889–1930): Paintings and Drawings, Sept. 10–Oct. 26, 2002, no cat.

The Downtown Gallery, New York; to private collection, New Rochelle, New York, about 1949-50 to 1999; consigned to Richard York Gallery, New York; sold to private collection, New York, 1999; consigned to Menconi & Schoelkopf, New York, 2001; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2004.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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