"Admired for his trompe l'oeil style, American painter William Harnett (1848-1892) was as intellectually ambitious as he was technically skilled. The first scholarly monograph on the artist, William Harnett's Curious Objects details Harnett's career-long effort to position still life as a serious art. Nika Elder elevates the significance of Harnett's academic training and questions his apparent turn away from it. Reading his still lifes in relation...