Grapes, Lemons, Pears, and Apples

A cluster of grapes rests near apples, pears, and lemons, all gathered on a surface swirled in purple and blue, with yellow-green leaves scattered among them. The composition brings together rounded fruit shapes against the curling patterns beneath them. This still life was painted in 1887 in oil on canvas, and it is held at the Art Institute of Chicago, where it came to the museum as a gift from Kate L. Brewster. The painter was Vincent van Gogh, whose work includes other still life studies of fruit and produce. One detail worth noticing is how the leaves seem to echo the twisting lines of the colored surface below, linking the organic fruit forms to the painted ground they sit upon, creating a sense of continuous movement across the canvas.