Levi Wells Prentice was born in Lewis County, New York on December, 18, 1851. Though his life is fairly shrouded in mystery, it is well documented that for the first half of his career he focused solely on painting the landscape of the Adirondack mountains, producing roughly seventy paintings of the scenery. He garnered a decent amount of success in Syracuse, NY (where he lived until 1883) as a landscape painter. However, he is most remembered today for his contributions to the genre of still life. He was a self-taught artist, although there is evidence that he may have apprenticed for a brief period of time with an engraver, which would explain his meticulous attention to detail. He taught himself to paint by copying the works of Old Masters, as well as contemporaries, such as Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait. Prentice was among the five-hundred or so artists who visited the Adirondack region between the years of 1830 and 1930, among them was Asher B. Durand, Thomas Cole and Winslow Homer. In 1883 Prentice and his wife, Emma, moved to Brooklyn, NY, where he began to paint still lifes almost immediately. Thanks to the efforts of Philadelphia’s Peale family, the genre of still life was on the rise in the early decades of the 19th century. However, Prentice did not receive anywhere near as much attention for his still lifes (which are celebrated today) as he did in Syracuse for his landscapes. He painted four types of still lifes, but he is most known for his still lifes set within a landscape. He clearly favored the apple, which appears more than any other fruit or vegetable in his paintings. His paintings portray each detail so meticulously and realistically, they are borderline trompe l’oeil. Little is known of Prentice after his Brooklyn years, but it is documented that he moved to Philadelphia, where he died on Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 1935. In 1993 the Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake put on a comprehensive exhibition of Prentice’s works, and since then there has been a resurgence of interest.