Flowers and fruit (1866)

"Flowers and fruit" (1866) is a work by Henri Fantin-Latour. The catalogue places it in Still Life. The format is portrait. Still Life, a short history: Dutch vanitas paintings used objects such as skulls, candles, and wilting flowers to remind viewers that time passes. Later artists, including Cézanne, Matisse, and Picasso, used humble still-life subjects to test ideas about space and form. Historical background, 1866: In the 1890s, colour lithography and Art Nouveau made the illustrated poster a celebrated art form. The later nineteenth century is the era of Impressionism, whose first group exhibition was held in Paris in 1874, followed by Post-Impressionism, Symbolism, and the Arts and Crafts movement.

Buying "Flowers and fruit" means getting a digital file, not a physical print: Digital JPEG + PDF files, 300 DPI, delivered by email once payment is confirmed. A 300 DPI file is intended for printing at home or at a local print shop, where you can choose a matte, satin, or fine-art paper to suit the room. A portrait format suits narrow wall spaces, hallways, and the area beside a door or window. Still life works are appreciated for their intimacy and rich surface detail, which makes them especially suited to dining rooms, kitchens, studies, and other quieter parts of the home. A simple frame with a mat often helps an image settle comfortably into a room. Choosing a standard frame size and printing to fit it often saves the cost of custom framing. Screens and printers render colour differently, so a small test print is a sensible way to check tones before committing to a large size. Matte and fine-art papers reduce glare in bright rooms, while glossy papers give stronger contrast and deeper blacks.

French, 1836–1904

If you like the visual language of Henri Fantin-Latour, explore more works by the same artist in our collection.