When French academicians ranked artistic genres in the late seventeenth century, still life was considered the lowest form of painting. This did not stop artists such as Chardin, Snyders, Melendez, and Harnett from transforming arrangements of fine and everday objects into mesmerizing works of art. Join graduate student gallery talk lecturer Caitlin Henningsen to examine the long history of still life painting, beginning in the Renaissance and moving forward to consider exceptional examples of American trompe l'oeil painting.