Fruit, Jug, and a Glass

Jean Siméon Chardin

National Gallery of Art

Light from the upper left falls across a glass, a pitcher, peaches in a basket, and other fruit arranged along a brown tabletop or ledge in this horizontal still life painting. The arrangement fills the height and width of the composition, and the table and most of the back wall are mottled with pecan brown and fern green. The background along the left edge of the composition is in deep shadow behind a translucent, wide-mouthed glass. Thin streaks of pale pink and white create reflections in the glass, and a brown hazelnut sits next to it. Moving right and a little farther back on the table, a tall, cinnamon-brown jug is turned so its handle faces us. A low, woven basket piled with at least six peaches sits next to the jug, filling most of the right half of the painting. The basket is lined with pine-green leaves, and the peaches have butter-yellow highlights. Three pieces of fruit sit on the table in front of the basket and jug: two small, frosty green, round pieces are connected by a shared stem and the larger, third piece of fruit is plum purple.