Still Life with a Basket of Fruit and a Bunch of Asparagus
Louise Moillon·1630
Historical Context
Louise Moillon's Still Life with a Basket of Fruit and a Bunch of Asparagus from 1630 is a masterwork by the foremost female still life painter of 17th-century France. Moillon, who came from a Huguenot family of painters, produced her finest works in her twenties before her marriage apparently curtailed her painting career. Her still lifes are distinguished by their clarity, precision, and a distinctive quality of light that sets them apart from both Dutch and Flemish contemporaries.
Technical Analysis
Moillon's oil-on-panel technique achieves a crystalline clarity of light and color with precise, smooth brushwork rendering each fruit and vegetable with naturalistic perfection. The balanced composition and the distinctive cool, clear lighting create images of unusual purity and visual presence.
Provenance
Gertrude D. Webster, Mass., probably to 1947 [Kleinberger archives, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York]. Sold, Plaza Art Galleries, New York, 6–8 November 1947, no. 234, as Dutch School, to Kleinberger, New York [annotated sale cat. in Frick Art Reference Library, New York]; sold by Kleinberger to the Art Institute through the Wirt D. Walker Fund, 1948.
