Raphaelle Peale, American
After a Long Day in the Fruit Bowl, Clementine Liked To Un-Rind With a Good Book, 1815
Oil on panel
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Info, or links that point to more info, about this artist can be found here, here, here, here, here, here (if prior here link is incomplete, this can be read in full for free on Fridays), here, and here, perhaps in addition to what's in his Wikipedia page.
Archive of the last here link’s webpage.
/// In my mind’s eye, Melch chuckles with glee
when this painting and caption we see.
“On a book, there’s cut fruit.
Now, go type something cute,
if you think you’re as funny as me.”
/// In addition he’s set a big snare
for a writer of limericks to dare.
Try to rhyme the word “orange,”
and you’re stuck writing “door hinge,”
an odd phrase that won’t fit anywhere.
/// So, I guess that Sol may as well quit.
Crown Steve Melcher the Wizard of Wit.
Orange you waiting for
someone clever to soar?
Surely someone’s stuff will be a hit!
/// For this still-life, the artist prepared
a large orange, first halved and then pared.
On a table, a book
in a nondescript nook.
And what did it all mean? No one cared.
/// My questions about this still-life
are: Why is there no paring knife?
Was the peel torn by hand?
Was the spiral shape planned?
And who cleaned up later— Peale’s wife?
/// What’s that book with an orange on top?
Is the citrus some kind of a prop?
More a sweet illustration
of the book’s deviation,
and a pulpy mechanical crop.
/// What’s the novel in which Alex purges
all his violent, creative urges?
Metal mainsprings unwind
like this fruit’s spiral rind.
“Clockwork Orange,” by Anthony Burgess.
A book and a juicy orange that has been cut, but no knife to be seen; it must be a kind of metaphor:
/// Many think O.J. murdered his wife,
but he didn’t get sentenced to life.
For the crime he was booked
but, although the cops looked,
they could never discover the knife.