Manet, Édouard (1832-1883)
Nature morte au melon et aux pêches (Still Life with Melon and Peaches)
1866
Oil on canvas, 68.3 x 91 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington
A white rose, grapes and other fruit, a squat gourd, a bottle, and a glass are arranged across a dark wood table partly covered by a white cloth in this horizontal still life painting. The table and its objects fill the width and most of the height of this composition, and are set against a sable-brown background. The rose, bowl, cluster of green grapes, and a peach sit on the shimmering, bright white cloth, which is draped over the left half of the table. The shallow, straw-yellow bowl holds a pile of canary-yellow pears and a few peaches nestled among green leaves. Another peach and a second piece of fruit sit in front of it, partly obscured by the grapes that lie near the front edge of the table. Continuing to the right, the pumpkin-shaped gourd, roughly the size of the bowl and its fruit, is painted with streaks and daubs of lemon yellow and light and forest green. It sits on a gleaming silver tray. A tapered, earth-brown bottle and a small glass with a long stem stand behind the gourd. On the front face of the table, near the lower right corner, a keyhole is outlined with gold, and the top of one table leg is also gold. The objects are loosely painted with some visible brushstrokes, especially in the fruit in the bowl and the gourd. The artist signed the lower right, “Manet.” (NGA)