Which is Which?

ca. 1890
Not on view
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.
Chalfant pasted a U.S. stamp onto canvas and placed next to it a hand-painted double, with identical sawtooth edges and paper-thin relief. The hastily cut-and-pasted newspaper account of the artist’s sleight of hand challenges the viewer to discern the real four-cent proxy from the impostor. Though one stamp appears abraded—evidence, perhaps, of attempts to verify “which is which” by touch—the real rub lies with the press clipping, a fictitious piece of paper and reporting. The insertion of actual printed matter, the stamp, was a one-off until the advent of Cubism, but the American proffered two other conceits as well: faux collage and fake news. Though well publicized in the United States, the works of the American trompe l’oeil artists were likely unknown to the Cubists.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Which is Which?
  • Artist: Jefferson D. Chalfant (American, 1856–1931)
  • Date: ca. 1890
  • Medium: Oil and cut-and-pasted printed paper on wood panel
  • Dimensions: 3 5/8 × 5 3/8 in. (9.2 × 13.7 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Brandywine River Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Richard M. Scaife and the Allegheny Foundation, 1997
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art