Artwork
Fruit Piece
Fruit Piece is an oil painting by the American Folk Art artist Hannah Brown Skeele. It dates from 1860 and is held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.
About this work
You see a tabletop piled with shiny fruit: bananas, oranges, a pineapple, and neat stacks of sugar cubes.
You see a tabletop piled with shiny fruit: bananas, oranges, a pineapple, and neat stacks of sugar cubes.
This painting was made in 1860, when American homes wanted pretty pictures of food. The fruit isn’t just local—it’s fancy imports, showing off what wealthy families could buy. The artist, Hannah Brown Skeele, lived in Missouri and painted this for a businessman in Saint Louis.
If you like how the light glows on the fruit, look up glazing.
Overview
Fruit Piece is an 1860 oil-on-canvas painting by Hannah Brown Skeele, depicting a colorful arrangement of fruit and sugar on a tabletop.
Subject & Meaning
The still life features a mix of locally grown and exotic imported goods, including bananas, oranges, and pineapple, reflecting the global trade networks of the time and the purchasing power of the emerging middle class.
Technique & Style
Skeele's use of oil paint achieves a high level of detail and luminosity, particularly in the rendering of the fruit's surfaces, suggesting a possible use of glazing techniques to capture the play of light.
History & Provenance
The painting was exhibited in the same year it was created and was already part of a Saint Louis businessman's collection, indicating its immediate appeal to the local art market.
Context
The depiction of tropical fruits and sugar cubes, products cultivated by enslaved and indentured laborers, situates the work within the broader context of 19th-century global trade and the economies that supported it.
Artist & collection
Artist
Hannah Brown Skeele (1829–1901) was an American painter, best known for her still-lifes, although she also produced portraits and pictures of animals.
