by Tom Gurney
Tom Gurney BSc (Hons) is an art history expert with over 20 years experience
Published on June 19, 2020 / Updated on October 2, 2026
Email: tomgurney1@gmail.com / Phone: +44 7429 011000
Flame-coloured flowers rise above a rounded blue vase. Grapes spill across a white cloth, with peaches and another green-yellow fruit beside them. The local image matches the illustrated Sotheby’s 2009 catalogue entry for Nature morte, fleurs et fruits. [1] Its English route title, Still Life Flowers and Fruit, is a direct description of this single canvas rather than the name of a group of still lifes.
The catalogue records a signature and the date “89” at lower left, an oil on canvas measuring 65.5 × 54 cm. Sotheby’s traces the picture from Renoir to the dealer Durand-Ruel in September 1890, then through documented twentieth-century owners and sales. The painting’s current owner is not established by that 2009 record. A separately credited Bridgeman / Photo Josse image entry [2] also illustrates the same arrangement and describes it as a privately held 1889 oil.
Contents
- The painting at a glance
- Flowers against a quiet ground
- A vase that holds the centre
- Grapes, peaches and cloth
- From Renoir to Durand-Ruel
- Still life as a serious experiment
- Looking again
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Watch on YouTubeAt a glance
- ArtistPierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919)
- Auction catalogue titleNature morte, fleurs et fruits
- Local route titleStill Life Flowers and Fruit
- Date1889, signed and dated “89” in the Sotheby’s record
- MediumOil on canvas
- Size65.5 × 54 cm
- Documented owner in 2009Private owner who bought at the Phillips, New York sale of 6 November 2000; present ownership unverified
- Catalogue raisonnéDauberville, vol. II, no. 714, as cited by Sotheby’s
This is an upright painting in which the bouquet occupies most of the upper half. The vase and fruit give it weight at the bottom. The contrast between upward flower stems and outward-spreading grapes is the composition’s basic movement.
Flowers against a quiet ground
The highest gladiolus stems nearly touch the top edge. Their narrow leaves and open flowers project in different directions, so the bouquet does not form a neat triangle. Warm reds and oranges dominate the blooms, but pale flowers around the vase’s neck interrupt them. Sotheby’s identifies gladioli and lilies in the arrangement. Where the inherited small reproduction leaves a bloom hard to name, those catalogue terms are firmer than guesswork based on colour alone.
The background is a muted green with long, subdued strokes. It allows the bright petals to stand out without making a sharp silhouette around every leaf. Some stems are dark and almost disappear into it; others catch light. This alternating clarity makes the bouquet seem abundant, but also open. We can look through it to the ground behind.
The flowers are not all at the same stage or angle. Some faces turn toward us, while others show their side or remain thin buds. Renoir uses that variety to keep the eye moving across the upper half. The tallest stalk at centre gives height, but the outward-reaching blooms on both sides keep the canvas from becoming a narrow column.
A vase that holds the centre
The spherical vase has blue scrolls and flowerlike ornament against yellow and pale areas. Its painted surface is more deliberately patterned than the living bouquet above it. Renoir gives it enough contour and shadow to feel round, while the decoration moves across its curved body. The rim is partly hidden by pale blossoms. That overlap ties the vessel to the flowers instead of presenting it as an isolated collectible object.
Blue is a small part of the overall palette, yet it anchors the still life. It appears in the vase’s strong curves and returns faintly in the cloth’s shadows. Around it, the warm petals and peaches become more vivid. The complementary effect is visible without needing to assign a symbolic meaning to the vessel. Sotheby’s catalogue quotes curator John House on the deliberate relationship of red, green, blue and orange in this exact painting; the colours are arranged, even though individual brushstrokes remain loose.
The vase is recognisable elsewhere in Renoir’s work. Sotheby’s notes its reuse in two versions of Young Girls at the Piano. That is a useful observation about a studio object, not proof that every blue vase in a Renoir still life is the same physical vessel. The separate local Vase of Chrysanthemums route also shows a patterned blue container, but its painting identity and object history need their own checks before the pages make a stronger connection.
Grapes, peaches and cloth
At lower left, green grapes form a dense cluster with darker fruit behind or among them. Small off-white touches make the individual skins look glossy. Their rounded marks answer the roundness of the vase at a much smaller scale. The cluster extends beyond the central vessel and pulls the arrangement toward the left edge.
Peaches sit across the lower margin. One at left is partly cut by the picture edge; another near the right folds of cloth carries yellow, orange and red on its surface. Sotheby’s published note uses that right-side peach to discuss modelling through shifts of colour. A green-yellow shape sits beside it. The image does not justify a secure identification of every fruit, so the article avoids turning the still life into a botanical inventory.
The white cloth gives the lower objects room to breathe. It folds into blue-grey and violet shadows beneath the vase and fruit, then brightens at the front. Its uneven edge and creases are essential to the balance: without the cloth’s light, the dark grapes and patterned vase could merge into the background. The cloth is also a reminder that this apparently casual abundance is staged on a tabletop.
From Renoir to Durand-Ruel
Sotheby’s provenance begins with Durand-Ruel Galleries, Paris and New York, which acquired the canvas from Renoir in September 1890. This is a documented transaction soon after the painted date, not an inference from the dealer’s broader relationship with the artist. The catalogue then names Edwin Chester Vogel, who acquired it in November 1938, followed by Sam Salz, Inc., and Mr and Mrs William Goetz in Beverly Hills.
The Goetz collection sold the work at Sotheby’s London on 14 October 1970. A Zurich private collection bought it there and offered it again at Sotheby’s London on 4 April 1989. The record then notes a Phillips, New York sale on 6 November 2000, where the owner listed in the 2009 Sotheby’s catalogue purchased it. These dates describe known waypoints. They do not establish what happened after the 2009 offering or where the painting is displayed now.
The exhibition history is unusually broad for a still life. Sotheby’s lists a 1908 Durand-Ruel still-life exhibition in Paris, the 1910 Venice international exhibition, a 1911 French art exhibition in St Petersburg, and later displays in New York, Toronto, San Francisco, London, Paris and Boston. Those entries show that the picture was repeatedly presented as a significant Renoir, not merely a study kept out of sight. They should not be mistaken for a current exhibition schedule.
Still life as a serious experiment
It is easy to call a flower picture decorative and stop there. Here, the objects make a demanding arrangement. A large, irregular bouquet stands above a compact vessel. The grapes fill a low corner, while individual peaches spread weight across the opposite side. The painting has to hold these competing rhythms together without hard outlines. Renoir solves that problem by making colour and brushwork connect the parts.
The Art Institute of Chicago’s scholarly entry on its Chrysanthemums [3] explains how Renoir used floral subjects for experimentation, and discusses his broader still-life practice. That Chicago canvas is a different work with its own date, vase and provenance. Its research helps place Nature morte, fleurs et fruits in a wider practice, but the object details on this page come from the exact Sotheby’s and Bridgeman records.
Sotheby’s also cites John House’s account of late-1880s still lifes as regular work for Renoir and of this canvas as a carefully elaborated example. The visible picture supports that reading. It is loose in its treatment of petals, yet exacting in the placement of colour masses. The vase’s ornament, the grapes’ highlights and the peach’s gradation reward attention as much as the bouquet’s spectacle.
Looking again
Look first at the tallest gladiolus, then let the outward stems lead you to the edges. Return to the patterned vase and follow its blue curves down to the cloth. Only then count the separate fruit forms. This route makes the still life read as a set of relationships rather than as a list of attractive things.
Renoir’s 1889 Still Life, Flowers and Fruit puts growth, ceramic pattern and harvested fruit into one vertical canvas. Its energy comes from their different shapes and surfaces. The documented date and early dealer history give that close looking an object-specific foundation.
Renoir artworks directory
Questions about Still Life Flowers and Fruit
Sotheby’s catalogues it as 1889 and records a signature and the painted date “89” at lower left.
The exact Sotheby’s lot gives 65.5 × 54 cm for an oil on canvas.
Sotheby’s identifies gladioli and lilies and discusses peaches and grapes. Other individual fruit are less secure from the available image.
The 2009 Sotheby’s entry describes a private owner who bought the canvas in 2000. Its present ownership and display status are not confirmed by that record.
No. The Art Institute’s Chrysanthemums is a separate still life. Its scholarly catalogue provides context for Renoir’s flower painting, while the pictured vase, fruit and 1889 date here belong to Nature morte, fleurs et fruits.
Discussion
What do you notice when you return to the blue patterned vase?
How do the tall flowers lead your eye through the canvas?
Reader Insights
How do the tall flowers lead your eye through the canvas?
Sotheby’s catalogued this signed 1889 oil on canvas as 65.5 × 54 cm.
How do the grapes and peaches balance the bouquet?
Join the Conversation
Share a close observation or a source-backed question about Renoir’s still life.
References
- Sotheby’s, Nature morte, fleurs et fruits, 2009 lot 13: exact illustrated match; signed date, medium, size, provenance, exhibition history and catalogue note View source.
- Bridgeman Images / Photo Josse, Fleurs et fruits, image JLJ4657046: independently credited exact image, 1889 date, private-collection description and licensed digital-file options View source.
- Art Institute of Chicago, scholarly catalogue, Chrysanthemums: distinct Renoir still life used only for broader flower-painting context View source.
