Still Life with Grapes and a Carnation

c. 1880

Henri Fantin-Latour

Painter, French, 1836 - 1904

A blue and white bowl overflowing with grapes, two loose bunches of grapes, and a vivid pink carnation lie on a white tablecloth against a dark brown background in this still life painting. The grapes vary from bright, translucent green, green with pink tones, and dark purple. The bowl is to the left of center, and it and the grapes it holds take up most of the left two-thirds of the composition. A bunch of grapes shaded green and pink and a bunch of dark, almost black grapes sits to the right of the bowl, and the short-stemmed carnation lies between us and those loose bunches. The table continues off the right edge of the canvas and comes to an end just short of the left edge. The artist signed the painting in the top right corner, “Fantin.”

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

  • Dimensions

    overall: 30.5 x 47 cm (12 x 18 1/2 in.)
    framed: 40.32 x 56.52 x 5.72 cm (15 7/8 x 22 1/4 x 2 1/4 in.)

  • Accession

    2006.128.20


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Arthur Tooth & Sons, London).[1] Paul Mellon [1907-1999], Upperville, Virginia, by 1966;[2] bequest 1999 to NGA, with life interest to Mrs. Mellon; life interest released 2006.
[1] According to a label removed from the back of the painting.
[2] The painting was lent to a 1966 exhibition of the Mellon collection at the NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1966

  • Franch Paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce. Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Exhibition 1941-1966, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1966, no. 62, repro.

2013

  • Intimate Impressionism from the National Gallery of Art, Museo dell'Ara Pacis Augustae, Rome (exhibition title in this venue: Impressionist Gems); California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco; McNay Art Museum, San Antonio; Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, Tokyo, Seattle Art Museum, 2013-2016, pl. 49.

Inscriptions

upper right: Fantin

Wikidata ID

Q20188870


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