Description

This is one of a group of related canvases featuring seasonal fruit that Vincent van Gogh painted in the fall of 1887. In these works, he simplified his palette, employed more vibrant colors, and used a thicker, broader paint application than he had earlier. Here he explored the use of complementary colors—yellow and purple, blue and orange, and red and green—in the service of chromatic intensity. The effect of these color contrasts is heightened by the pulsating pattern of brushstrokes that defines the tablecloth and creates a force field around the fruit. The painting was probably among the “violent still lifes”—to quote Van Gogh’s friend the painter Emile Bernard—that he included in the group exhibition of young avant-garde artists that he organized at a local restaurant in November–December 1887.

Provenance

The artist’s brother, Theo van Gogh (died 1891), Paris; either by descent to his brother-in-law, Andres Bonger, or to Julien Tanquy [this and the following according to Stolwijk and Veenenbos, 2002, 25]. Émile Bernard, Paris, around March 1894; sold to Ambroise Vollard, Paris, Aug. 14, 1894 [Fonds Archives, MS 421 (4,3) fol. 4, August 14, 1894, Musée d’Orsay, Paris; New York 2006]; sold to Edgar Degas (died 1917), Paris, possibly Oct. 1895 [Degas inventory no. 173; New York 1997 and New York 2006]; his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, Mar. 25-26, 1918, lot 29 [sale catalogue in curatorial object file]; sold to Paul Rosenberg, Paris, for 16,500 francs [this and the following according to New York 2006]. Henry-Jean Laroche, Paris, by 1928. Chester H. Johnson Galleries, Chicago, by 1928 [Chicago 1933 and label on the reverse]. Walter S. Brewster (died 1954) and Kate L. Brewster (1947), Chicago, by 1929 [Chicago 1929]; bequeathed to the Art Institute, 1949.