Description
Oysters is Édouard Manet’s first still life, painted in 1862: on a dark wooden table stands a plate of opened oysters, with a halved lemon beside it, a small blue-and-white pot and a silver fork. The original is oil on canvas measuring just 39.2 x 46.8 cm, and it belongs to the National Gallery of Art in Washington. Our painter makes it for you by hand in oil on canvas, in 8 landscape sizes from 40 x 32 to 190 x 153 cm, or made to measure. A photograph of your finished oysters reaches you before the parcel leaves.
| Title: | Oysters |
| Other titles: | Les Huîtres (French title) |
| Painter: | Édouard Manet (1832–1883) |
| Year painted: | 1862 |
| Original size: | 39.2 cm x 46.8 cm (height x width) |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Painting style: | Realism and Impressionism |
| Located at: | National Gallery of Art, Washington, United States |
| Our reproduction: | Hand-painted in oil on canvas, 8 sizes or made to measure |
Oysters – Édouard Manet
What does Oysters show?
On a table of dark wood sits an oval white plate with a blue rim, heaped with opened oysters. The shells are painted in grey, mother-of-pearl and sandy brown, and their insides gleam as if still wet.
To the right of the plate lie two bright yellow lemon halves; one turns its cut face towards us, showing the pale segments. Behind them stands a small white pot with blue decoration, which the English Wikipedia describes as a jug of butter.
Two more oysters lie in the foreground, and a long-handled silver fork rests at a slant across the table. The background is a plain, dark grey-brown wall, so the eye stays on the food. At the lower left, on the table edge, Manet signed in dark paint.
Does Oysters have a hidden meaning?
The scene tells no story, and there is no person in it. Our sources give no symbolic reading, so we add none: what we see is a table laid for a meal.
What rewards a closer look is the way it is painted. Manet does not draw every ridge of a shell; he builds it from a few broad strokes of light and dark paint that read as plain marks up close and as a real, rough shell from across the room.
It is the first still life Manet painted, made in 1862, shortly before his large canvases caused a storm at the Paris exhibitions; flower still lifes followed in 1864 and 1865.
Why does this painting matter?
Édouard Manet (1832–1883) was born in Paris into a wealthy, well-connected family; his father was a judge. After twice failing the naval entrance examination, he trained under the painter Thomas Couture from 1850 to 1856 and copied Velázquez and Titian in the Louvre.
Frans Hals, Velázquez and Goya shaped his work. Among the first nineteenth-century artists to paint modern life, he became a pivotal figure between Realism and Impressionism. Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe (1863) and Olympia (1865) caused great controversy and are now regarded as the start of modern art.
Oysters shows the same hand on a quieter scale: a small canvas, a few things from the table and brushwork that catches a wet shell without any needless detail. For more, there is a short Wikipedia article on the painting, written in English.
Where is the original today?
The original is oil on canvas measuring 39.2 x 46.8 cm (height x width). It belongs to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, under accession number 1962.3.1.
The gallery acquired it in 1962, and it has been part of its collection ever since.
By comparison, the canvas of Boy Carrying a Sword, painted in 1861, is 131.1 cm tall, more than three times the height of Oysters.
Oysters or another Manet?
This is a canvas painting for anyone who enjoys a well-laid table, and a natural choice for a kitchen, a dining room or a restaurant: food, light and calm, with no story to explain to guests.
If Manet’s still life appeals to you, look at Vase of Peonies: a tall porcelain vase on a dark lacquered tray holds a bunch of pink, white and dusky-red peonies, with one white bloom lying on the table in front.
Two women, each absorbed in what she is doing, appear in Madame Manet at the Piano, where Suzanne Leenhoff in a black dress plays an upright piano, and in Woman Reading, a young woman in a black coat and hat holding up a large illustrated paper in a Paris café.
The full selection of famous Manet paintings we paint to order is on our Édouard Manet page.
How do we hand-paint Oysters?
Manet’s original is a small oil on canvas, 46.8 cm wide. Ours is an oil painting reproduction made on new canvas: the painter lays on the oil colour layer by layer, in the size you have chosen.
He first sets down the level edge of the table, the oval plate and the dark wall, which together give the composition its calm. Next he models the shells, from their dark outer rims to the pale, wet insides, and only at the end adds the yellow lemon, the blue decoration on the pot, the shine of the fork and the signature, keeping the shells thick and the wall almost smooth, as Manet left them.
Which size suits which wall?
In short: 40 x 32 or 50 x 42 cm for a kitchen shelf or a narrow wall beside a window, 65 x 52 and 74 x 59 cm above the table in a small dining nook, 90 x 78 and 115 x 96 cm above a sideboard or a sofa, and 150 x 120 or 190 x 153 cm for a large wall in a dining room or restaurant.
We paint Oysters in 8 landscape sizes (width x height): 40 x 32, 50 x 42, 65 x 52, 74 x 59, 90 x 78, 115 x 96, 150 x 120 and 190 x 153 cm. The original measures only 46.8 x 39.2 cm (width x height): 40 x 32 cm is slightly smaller, 50 x 42 cm is almost the same, and every size from 65 x 52 cm upwards enlarges the plate of oysters, the largest to about four times its width.
As a painting for the living room it works best at 115 x 96 or 150 x 120 cm above a sofa or sideboard. In a kitchen, 50 x 42 or 65 x 52 cm is usually enough for the yellow lemon and the pale shells to read from the doorway.
Can I order another size or a frame?
Yes. If your wall calls for other proportions, we keep the plate, the lemon, the pot and the fork whole and adjust the empty dark wall above them or the edge of the table, so the composition stays balanced. Send us the size you need for your kitchen or dining room, and we will reply with a price and a delivery date.
Oysters leaves us rolled, stretched on a stretcher bar or framed. Our workshop in Slovenia does the stretching and framing and packs every painting securely. The moulding for your oysters is picked in our 3D app, which serves only to choose a frame; seeing the painting on your own wall is a separate service. Dark wood suits the painted table, fine silver the fork.
How long do painting and delivery take?
The painter starts on the oysters as soon as you confirm the order, and the painting is ready to ship within 15 to 45 working days. Before the oysters are packed, we send you a photograph of the finished painting and change anything you ask for.
Within Slovenia and to other EU countries it travels without customs duties, and every order is covered by our returns policy.
Oysters makes a fine gift for a cook, a seafood lover or a restaurant opening. If you are unsure which wall awaits it, give a wall art voucher and let the recipient choose the size.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I see the original?
At the National Gallery of Art in Washington, which holds it under accession number 1962.3.1.
What is on the plate?
Opened oysters; the English Wikipedia counts six on the platter, with a sliced lemon and a jug of butter beside them.
Is this a print?
No. Each one is a hand-painted copy: the painter sets down the shells, lemon and fork with a brush, in oil on canvas.
How big is the original?
It measures 39.2 x 46.8 cm (height x width), so all our sizes from 65 x 52 cm upwards enlarge it.
Can you paint Oysters in a different size?
Of course. Write to us with the width and height you need, and we will send an offer with the production time.
How soon will my painting arrive?
It is ready to ship within 15 to 45 working days; before that, we send you a photograph of the finished work.
Does it suit a kitchen or a dining room?
Yes, it is one of the most natural choices for a kitchen, dining room or restaurant, since it shows a table laid with oysters and lemon.
Was this Manet’s first still life?
Yes, Oysters from 1862 is the first still life Manet painted.
- Subject: a plate of opened oysters, lemon halves, a blue-and-white pot and a silver fork on a dark wooden table.
- Original: oil on canvas, 1862, 39.2 x 46.8 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington.
- Ours: a hand-painted Édouard Manet reproduction in oil on canvas, 8 sizes from 40 x 32 to 190 x 153 cm, or made to measure.
- Worth knowing: Manet’s first still life; at the National Gallery of Art since 1962.
