Provenance
Possibly Charles I, King of England [1600-1649], The Cabinet Room, Whitehall.[1] Private collection, Lausanne, Switzerland; (sale, Christie’s, London, 30 November 1973, no. 47); purchased by Honoré.[2] Private collection, Germany until 1988. (Jean-Claude Serre, Paris); purchased 1989 by Georges De Jonckheere, Brussels and Paris.[3] purchased 2023 by private collection, London; purchased 2024 through (Ben Elwes Fine Art) by NGA.
[1] Abraham van der Doort’s 1639 inventory _A Catalogue and Description of King Charles the First's Capital Collection of Pictures, Limnings, Statues, etc_ (MS Ashmole 1514, Bodleian Library, University of Oxford) records a work described as “an other peece of grapes and peach—and vine leaves upon a Stone table . Done by A ffrenchwoeman in ffraunc Called . Lousea Mullon” (folio 156, item no. 3). See Oliver Millar, “Abraham van der Doort’s Catalogue of the Collection of Charles I,” _Walpole Society_ 37 (1960): 160. The catalogue entry for a different painting by Moillon sold by Sotheby’s London on 13 December 1991 (no. 57) indicates Millar thought the description fit that work; however, it does not have the unusual stone ledge specified in the inventory, which makes the NGA painting a more likely match.
[2] Later provenance was adapted from the research of Dr. Tom Flynn and from the artist’s catalogue raisonné by Dominique Alsina, _Louyse Moillon: La nature morte au Grand Siècle_, Dijon, 2009. In the 1973 sale the painting is given as "Property of a Gentleman." The name of the buyer is listed as ‘Honoré’ in the Frick Photographic Archive, which was separately confirmed to Dr. Flynn by the London photography firm A. C. Cooper of London. See provenance research report dated 20 November 2023, copy in NGA curatorial files, as well as https://digitalcollections.frick.org.
[3] As per emails from 24 November 2024 and 6 June 2025 from the Galerie De Jonckheere. The painting was in De Jonckheere's private collection.
Accession Number
2024.54.1
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 58.42 × 96.52 cm (23 × 38 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Chester Dale Fund and Patrons' Permanent Fund
Tags
Painting Baroque (1600–1750) Oil Painting Canvas French
Background & Context
Background Story
Louise Moillon (1610-1696) was a French painter known as one of the most accomplished still life painters of the 17th century, whose precisely observed fruit and flower paintings make her one of the most important women painters in the history of French art. Still Life with a Basket of Peaches and Grapes from 1636 depicts fruit in the precisely observed, elegant manner that distinguishes Moillon's best work from the more exuberant still life painting of her Flemish contemporaries. The 1636 date places this early in Moillon's career, when she was already producing the precisely observed still life paintings that would make her one of the most accomplished still life painters of the 17th century.
Cultural Impact
Still Life with a Basket of Peaches and Grapes is important in the history of French painting because it demonstrates the precisely observed, elegant manner that Moillon brought to still life as one of the most accomplished women painters in the history of French art. Moillon's precisely observed still life paintings—combining the observation of French still life tradition with the elegant restraint of her own manner—represent one of the most accomplished traditions in 17th-century French painting, and the 1636 painting shows this tradition at its earliest and most precise.
Why It Matters
Still Life with a Basket of Peaches and Grapes is Moillon's elegant French still life: fruit rendered in the precisely observed manner of one of the most accomplished women painters in the history of French art. The 1636 painting shows the elegant restraint and precise observation that would make Moillon one of the most accomplished still life painters of the 17th century.
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