Peter DeAnna American (1921-1980) Around the Dinner Table oil on canvas Signed lower right. From the Washington Post Feb.16,1980: Peter DeAnna, 59, A Washington realist painter and muralist and a retired visual information specialist for the Smithsonian Institute, died of cancer Thursday at George Washington University Hospital. Like many artists, Mr. DeAnna, who rejected most contemporary painting and whose expressed desire was to paint "a handful of pictures of genuine quality," turned to illustration to support himself, his wife and four sons. His paintings are included in the collections of the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Hirshhorn Museum, as well as in a number of private collections. aHis last exhibit, a retrospective show of 22 oils -- portraits of family and friends, landscapes and still lifes filled with beloved scenes of places and objects -- was held at the Studio Gallery here early last year. Washington Post art critic Paul Richard found these paintings to be "simiple, calm, a little rough, and almost daringly old fashioned," and cited Mr. DeAnna's "peculiar blend of affirmation and refusal" which todays seems almost new. 29 1/2"H x 45 1/2"W (sight), 36 1/2"H x 52 1/2"W (frame)