Artwork
Still Life of a Peach and Grapes
Still Life of a Peach and Grapes is an oil painting by the Dutch Golden Age artist Abraham de Lust. It dates from 1655 and is held in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum.
About this work
Overview
Abraham de Lust’s oil painting, titled *Still Life of a Peach and Grapes*, dates from 1655 and is part of the Ashmolean Museum’s collection. The work presents a modest arrangement of fruit set against a dark backdrop, allowing the natural colors and forms to dominate the composition.
Subject & Meaning
The canvas depicts a single peach, its skin pale with a subtle blush, alongside clusters of red and white grapes. Both are placed in a wicker basket, whose open weave and modest handle suggest a domestic setting. The simplicity of the objects invites contemplation of everyday abundance and the fleeting nature of fresh produce.
Technique & Style
De Lust employed oil paint to render fine surface details, using chiaroscuro to model light and shadow across the fruit and basket. The dark ground intensifies the luminous highlights, while the delicate brushwork captures the texture of the peach’s skin and the translucency of the grapes, reflecting a mid‑seventeenth‑century Dutch still‑life sensibility.
History & Provenance
Created in the mid‑1650s, the painting entered the Ashmolean Museum’s holdings through acquisition in the twentieth century. Its attribution to Abraham de Lust, a lesser‑known Dutch painter, is based on stylistic analysis and archival records linking the work to his known output during that period.
Artist & collection
Artist
Dutch still-life painter Abraham de Lust filled quiet oil paintings with everyday abundance.
