Very little is known about his life, but his trompe l'oeil (fool-the-eye) still lifes indicates that a primary interest was money, which he painted in numerous ways--in barrels, piles, tidy stacks, and even nose gays and garlands. An explanation for this ever reoccurring subject has been offered by Alfred Frankenstein in his book, "The Reality of Appearance": "He was obsessed with money, doubtless, because he never had any."

In fact, he painted money so accurately, that he was suspected by government officials of counterfeiting the U.S. dollar bill. One of his paintings, "Barrels of Money," a copy of an earlier version, was confiscated by the government and kept in security for several years with a mandate that the original be destr...