Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Still Life with Apples and Almonds

Still Life with Apples and Almonds – a narrow canvas, almost twice as wide as it is tall

Still Life with Apples and Almonds is an undated oil painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The original measures 43.5 cm x 20.5 cm, is recorded under inventory number MNR 683, is in the custody of the Musée d’Orsay and is shown at the musée Renoir in Cagnes-sur-Mer. Our oil painting on canvas Still Life with Apples and Almonds is worked by hand, in eight sizes from 100 x 45 to 200 x 90 cm.

Five apples, almonds and one green leaf

On a narrow canvas, almost twice as wide as it is tall, a group of fruit lies on a table. Five red-orange apples are spread across the centre, with pale green almonds among and around them. At the right a green leaf reaches past the edge. The ground is a single warm ochre plane without detail, and the signature is painted in the lower right corner.

Why hand-painted, not a print

Our version is not a print. The paint is thinly laid, so that in places the weave of the canvas and the warm underpainting show through – and that is the point of this particular work, because it is the transparency that gives the fruit weight without any contour line. A hand-made version can leave the canvas visible in places; print lays an even coat over everything and the underpainting goes.

In the room

The format is markedly low and long, so the painting asks for a horizontal wall with nothing above it and nothing below – above a long sideboard, above the head of a bed, or in a hallway where it stretches along the route. Because of that proportion it is one of the few subjects that rescues a wall on which an ordinary painting looks lost. For a common wall we suggest 120 x 55 cm, for a really long one 160 x 75 cm; above a wide piece of furniture 180 x 85 cm works too, with 150 x 70 cm as the step between. The smallest size, 100 x 45 cm, suits a spot above a narrow shelf or in a kitchen.

What you receive

We paint the canvas to order, by hand and for you alone, so every copy is made on its own; the canvas is usually painted and dried within three to four weeks. If you prefer, we will paint it in a size that is not on the list. Before despatch we send you a photograph of the finished canvas for your approval, and only then does the painting go out. Still Life with Apples and Almonds arrives stretched on a wooden frame and ready to hang, wrapped in protective film and in rigid packaging, with no further stretching or finishing needed.

• Subject: five apples and pale green almonds on a table, on a narrow horizontal canvas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
• Technique: hand-painted oil painting on canvas, stretched on a wooden frame
• Sizes: 8 sizes, from 100 x 45 cm to 200 x 90 cm, another size on request
• Detail worth knowing: the canvas is close to two to one, unusual for a still life – it sets the fruit in a row instead of a heap

See also:

• Flowers in a Vase
• Still Life: Flowers
• Still Life with Bouquet and Fan