# Lights of Other Days

- By: John Frederick Peto (American, 1854–1907)
- Date: 1906
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: 77.5 × 115 cm (30 1/2 × 45 1/4 in.)
- Culture: United States
- Credit line: Goodman Fund
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/2156)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/438fbefa-e576-bd5f-983f-1c9626cd4a60/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Little Ones profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Lights of Other Days, like many of John F. Peto’s still lifes, is replete with nostalgia. Strewn along a shallow shelf above a doorframe is an array of old, well-worn objects: candleholders with wax candles nearly used up, rusty oil lamps, and torn books. These discarded commonplace objects allude to older ways of life and fading memories. Peto specialized in trompe l’oeil (fools the eye) pictures; yet his soft-edged style is suggestive of the artist’s hand rather than the heightened illusionism employed by other trompe l’oeil painters such as William Harnett. Trained in Philadelphia, Peto stopped exhibiting his work at professional venues by 1890, creating compositions instead for local patrons near his New Jersey home.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0