Description
Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Fruits of the Midi
| Year of creation: | 1881 |
| Original size: | 51.0 cm x 65.0 cm |
| Painting style: | Impressionism |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Located: | Art Institute of Chicago |
Fruits of the Midi is an oil painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, made in 1881. The original measures 51.0 x 65.0 cm, is catalogued as 1933.1176 and hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago. Our oil painting on canvas Fruits of the Midi is worked by hand in oil on canvas, in eight sizes from 80 x 60 to 170 x 130 cm.
A shallow blue-and-white dish stands on a white cloth, heaped with lemons, a large green-yellow citron at the centre, dark purple fruits and tomatoes, with a spray of green leaves spilling forward over the rim. In front of the dish and to its right more fruit lies loose: a long dark aubergine, red and orange peppers, small tomatoes, lemons, and at the right a pomegranate with a green-and-yellow pepper beside it.
The background is nothing but a wall of grey, green and violet strokes, without objects and without depth. That is deliberate: nothing competes with the fruit, so its colour carries all the more. The signature at the lower left reads Renoir .81.
Our version is not a print. The fruits are built from dense, short loads of paint that follow the shape of each one, while the cloth and the wall are laid in with broad, soft strokes. A hand-painted painting keeps that difference in the way the paint sits, which printed paper cannot imitate.
The lively red-and-yellow subject is a natural fit for a dining room or a kitchen, and it also works in a living room as a point of colour on a quiet wall. For a smaller wall 90 x 70 cm is enough; above a larger piece of furniture we recommend 130 x 100 cm. We paint to order, in a different size on request. Before dispatch we send you a photograph of the finished canvas for your approval. Every oil painting on canvas Fruits of the Midi arrives ready to hang, with the canvas stretched on a wooden frame.
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