The American painter Raphaelle Peale (1774-1825) left a legacy of vibrantly beautiful still lifes depicting objects such as fruit, vegetables, and meat. This book explores the artist, presenting a reading of these paintings and focusing on the uncanny quality of Raphaelle's still-life objects.

List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: Windows on the Object PART ONE: Before 1. Blackberries and The Solitary Imagination 2. Blackberries and Embodiment 3. Blackberries and Focused Vision: Refusing The Long View 4. Three Kinds of Silence PART TWO: Beneath 5. Meat and Nonidentity 6. The Anatomized Still Life 7. Dissector and Dissected: Self and Body PART THREE:Birth 8. Abjection: Still Life and the Return of the Maternal Body 9. The Rhapsodic Maternal Body 10. Smallness 11. The Deception of Venus Rising From The Sea Notes Bibliography Index

"This book is mind-blowing. Nemerov is a groundbreaking thinker in his field."—John Wilmerding, Princeton University "This is a book for all serious Americanists."—Jay Fliegelman, author of Declaring Independence "Each haunting and delicately wrought canvas expands as Nemerov writes about it, so that his interpretive work both mirrors and supplements the wondrous intensity of the paintings themselves."—Ellen Handler Spitz, Museums of the Mind "Underneath their apparent simplicity, Raphaelle Peale's still lifes glow mysteriously in the dark light of their making. Peale transformed the common items of the early-nineteenth-century kitchen and market into explorations of the American unconscious. Now, writing as coolly and lucidly as Peale painted, Alexander Nemerov has unpeeled those still lifes in a tour de force of formalistic analysis. Through close interrogation of these small, hermetic images, Nemerov's book reveals the whole world of early America, in the process bringing us as close as possible to the genius of Raphaelle Peale."—David C. Ward, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution."This is a dazzling study, lively and imaginative, of an important body of work. Nemerov's novel arguments regarding still life in general and Raphaelle Peale in particular reveal much about the art, the man, and the times. It is a thoughtful and provocative book, certain to generate interest and debate. "—Charles C. Eldredge, Hall Distinguished Professor of American Art and Culture, University of Kansas "A triumph of interpretation! Not since Michael Fried's groundbreaking account of Thomas Eakins has a critic so reimagined the very terms by which we see painting. Nemerov's account singlehandedly catapults a painter we had previously considered to be interesting, but minor, into the forefront of discussions about American art during the early National Period. The Body of Raphaelle Peale will no doubt spark the beginning of an exciting revival of scholarship in American Romantic painting."—Bryan J. Wolf, author of Romantic Re-Vision

"A triumph of interpretation!... The Body of Raphaelle Peale will no doubt spark the beginning of an exciting revival of scholarship in American Romantic painting. At the same time, the book instructs even the most sophisticated critic in the fine art of how to read still life paintings." -Bryan J. Wolf, author of Romantic Re-Vision: Culture and Consciousness in American Painting and Literature "Through close interrogation of these small, hermetic images, Nemerov's book reveals the whole world of early America, in the process bringing us as close as possible to the genius of Raphaelle Peale." -David C. Ward, The Peale Family Papers, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution "This is a dazzling study, lively and imaginative, of an important body of work. Nemerov's novel arguments regarding still life in general and Raphaelle Peale in particular reveal much about the art, the man, and the times. It is a thoughtful and provocative book, certain to generate interest and debate." -Charles C. Eldridge, Hall Distinguished Professor of American Art and Culture, University of Kansas"