Fruit bowls a focal point of SLAM’s still life works

There are certain subjects that you’d expect to see in a painting hanging at an art museum—a vast landscape scene, a field of flowers, a bowl of fruit. It’s not hard to imagine how an artist found inspiration in a nature setting.

But why the fruit bowl?  

There’s the practical answer: Fruit is often easily accessible and comes with a certain freedom of customizing the composition of the subject, according to the Getty Museum. Painting fruit also eliminates the need to travel long distances to visit a certain landscape or pay for a model to pose.  

Fruit still lifes may also convey deeper meanings, as shown in Picasso’s Pitcher and Fruit Bowl below. Some of the artists in the Museum’s collection take creative liberties when depicting the bowl of fruit before them, abstracting their forms or using complementary colors to add depth to the painting. There are more than 60 still-life works in SLAM’s collection (fruit bowls included). Continue reading to see a selection of some of SLAM’s fruit-related works.

Pitcher and Fruit Bowl

A pitcher, a philodendron plant, and a basket of fruit rest on a mantelpiece and are bound together by sweeping black lines. Pablo Picasso often invested his still lifes with secret meanings, and this work is a disguised portrait of his young and voluptuous lover, Marie-Thérèse Walter. The pitcher is painted in the brilliant yellow often used to represent Marie-Thérèse’s hair while the green apple suggests the form of her breast and the curling black lines refer to the contours of her body.

Still Life

Still Life revels in the textures of translucent grapes and fuzz of peach skin. The unadorned background emphasizes the delicate silhouette of grape leaves and tendrils. The bee and caterpillar add a sense of the momentary to an otherwise seemingly timeless theme. These details draw us closer to the image, increasing our sense of intimacy with it by inviting careful observation. This work is one of the earliest still-life paintings made in the United States. The artist, John Johnston, worked in his father’s engraving and decorative painting business. He served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War (1775–1783) and was injured and imprisoned by the British for more than a year before returning to Boston to open his own studio. 

Still Life with a Basket of Fruit

Tendrils of grapevine playfully coil around a profusion of grapes, peaches, watermelon, plums, cherries, strawberries, an apple, and even a bird’s nest that cradles three delicate eggs. Miniscule dewdrops reward careful exploration. Artist Severin Roesen created this painting as a feast for the eyes. Hung in well-to-do parlors and dining rooms, paintings such as this celebrated the nation’s abundant natural resources, a source of pride and optimism for the future. Bountiful resources were especially appreciated in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where the German-born artist worked. This “Lumber Capital of the World” produced 350 million board feet per day, creating more millionaires per capita than any other city in the mid-19th century. It was hard for those Americans, whose wealth was increasing so dramatically in the decades before the Civil War, to imagine that such resources could be depleted.

Fish, Fruits, and Flowers

Fruits, flowers, vases, textiles, a Japanese screen and figurine, and even a bowl holding goldfish jostle for attention in Kathryn Cherry’s still life. The artist presents a riot of patterns, colors, and textures. Cherry was a dynamic figure in the St. Louis art scene in the early 20th century. In 1910, she became a founding faculty member of the University City Art Academy and Porcelain Works. For the next five years, she earned a reputation as the finest china painter in the country while teaching hundreds of students. In 1915, she became the head of the art department at Principia College in Elsah, Illinois, and built a career as a nationally recognized still-life painter.

Still Life, Basket of Apples

The bounty of nature is suggested in this view of 10 apples in a wicker basket. The red outlines of the apples complement their green texture while the blue-violet shadows offset the dominant golden-yellow color of the composition. Vincent van Gogh rarely signed his paintings but here used only his first name as a signature. This work is one of a series of still lifes that the artist painted in Paris in 1887.

Glass and Fruit

In this arrangement of circular and triangular shapes, Georges Braque represents a green apple and yellow apple resting on a knife, a carafe and goblet, and a basket of eggs. These objects sit on a russet tablecloth, which is tilted up so that the viewer gets both a horizontal and bird’s-eye view. Braque depicts the table and background with thinned paint, in contrast to his objects that are rendered in paint thickened by the addition of sand.

Still Life with Mice

The artist has assembled sweets and fruits, including apples, sugared almonds, gingersticks, a lemon, and an orange, in a way that seems casual but was actually the result of careful planning. Diagonals echo other diagonals while the apple and reflective plate are offset by the citrus fruits. The picture may refer to the vanity of the physical world since the ripened apple exhibits decay and mice sometimes symbolize death or sin. It could also be a celebration of costly confections.

The Basket of Fruit

Pierre Bonnard represents a basket of apples and pears within a geometrical framework created by the diagonals, horizontals, and verticals of a tabletop. Bonnard wrestled with the complexities of white as a color throughout his career; here, the nuanced pale tones of the wall and tablecloth serve as a counterpoint to the brighter color accents of the fruit. Bonnard was a founding member of the Nabis group of painters who emphasized the importance of decorative pattern making in their compositions.

Still Life with Strawberries

This careful presentation of ripe strawberries, prickly skinned pineapple, and the shiny reflections of elaborate silver and glass speak to the owner’s taste for luxury. The pineapple, an exotic fruit imported into New Orleans and shipped along the Mississippi River, was available only in limited quantities. Wealthy families proudly served it on special occasions. This painting would have adorned the walls of an upper-class dining room and affirmed social and economic status. Still life was considered an appropriate subject for female artists, who generally were excluded from more lucrative painting subjects and formal training in the United States in the 19th century. Hannah Brown Skeele worked in St. Louis in the 1860s. She was considered an amateur artist, though her works won considerable acclaim.