About John Frederick Peto

  • Biography

    John Peto was born on March 17, 1854 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of a dealer in picture frames and later of fire department supplies. Little is known of his early artistic training except that he enrolled in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1877 and during the next half dozen years he contributed works to its annual exhibitions. While as the Academy he was influenced by classmate William Harnett, "trompe l'oeil" painter. In contrast to Harnett, he painted commonplace subjects that were in disorder and ramschackled.

    From 1879 to 1889 Peto tried to live the life of a professional artist by maintaining a studio in Philadelphia. However he was not very successful because he often painted obj...

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