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A. F. King
(1854-1945)
Click Here for examples of King's work

A. F. King (1854-1945), a generation younger than Hetzel, was the artist who was most prolific as a still life painter and spanned two centuries in his work, bringing the nineteenth century style of still life painting into the first quarter of the twentieth century. Although King is not known for landscape painting he was a close associate of George Hetzel and accompanied him in excursions to Scalp Level. King is shown in many of the photographs of Hetzel and his associates at their summer retreat and seemed to enjoy a special camaraderie with the older artist.

A portrait painter for most of his life, the tradition has it that King would give favored customers who sat for their portraits a memento of their sitting in the form of a miniature still life painting. These measure only about five by seven inches on small canvases and reflect the same subject matter that concerned King in his larger compositions.

A favorite subject was the watermelon which Hetzel also favored. King paints watermelons whole, with triangular cuts in the rind (to permit the pouring in of beverages), split open, and every variation in between.

King favored a hard edge and a clarity of light that had little to do with the chiaroscuro favored by his mentor, George Hetzel. His brushwork was sometimes imperceptible, sometimes painterly, and often both in the same painting. Frequently the objects in the foreground are carefully rendered while the more generic backgrounds are loosely worked.