Fruit

Julian Alden Weir

ca. 1888 · Oil on canvas · The American Wing

While Weir is better known for his impressionist landscapes, in the 1880s, he focused on figure and still-life subjects rendered in a darker palette. This turn may have been inspired by the influence of the French avant-garde painter Edouard Manet, who Weir met on a trip to Paris, in 1881. He also acquired three Manet oils for a U.S. collector at that time. Soon after, Weir began experimenting with more intimate still lifes, such as Fruit, that evoke the vanitas tradition of the transience of nature. This painting was once owned by Louisine and Henry Havemeyer, major patrons of Mary Cassatt, whose work also appears on this wall.

Artist

Julian Alden Weir

Date

ca. 1888

Medium

Oil on canvas

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Purchase, Gift of Robert E. Tod, by exchange, 1980