Peaches and Grapes

Henri Fantin-Latour 1836 - 1904

Summary

Four peaches and a bunch of green grapes, arranged on a large china plate lined with dark green leaves, stand on a plain wooden table. The peaches appear freshly picked, firm and perhaps slightly unripe, to judge from the deep green of the middle peach and the yellow skinned fruit behind it. The leaves contrast beautifully with the deep pink blush of the two nearest fruit. The light source is reflected in the grapes, while the furry peaches remain relatively matt. The subdued light is greenish, giving an impression of a cool interior, scented by the beautiful fruit. Fantin-Latour studied from the age of ten with his father, Jean-Théodore Fantin-Latour (1805–75). In 1850, at fourteen, he began an apprenticeship in the Paris studio of Horace Lecocq de Boisbaudran, where he spent six years copying from the Old Masters and from nature, which was standard practice in mid-nineteenth-century ateliers. Following a brief spell at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, he studied briefly with Gustave Courbet, although he would reject the latter's extreme realism. Fantin-Latour sometimes exhibited alongside the Impressionists, but he continued to show his work at the Salon, where his work attracted good reviews. From the 1870s, he developed further his early interest in mythological subjects and music, inspired by Old Master painting, and by the music of Wagner and Berlioz. The lustrous realism of this bowl of fruit recalls both 17th century Dutch still life painting and that of the great 18th century French still life painter, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin (1699-1779).