Still Life with Grapes and a Carnation

Henri Fantin-Latour

National Gallery of Art

A blue and white bowl overflowing with grapes, two loose bunches of grapes, and a vivid pink carnation lie on a white tablecloth against a dark brown background in this still life painting. The grapes vary from bright, translucent green, green with pink tones, and dark purple. The bowl is to the left of center, and it and the grapes it holds take up most of the left two-thirds of the composition. A bunch of grapes shaded green and pink and a bunch of dark, almost black grapes sits to the right of the bowl, and the short-stemmed carnation lies between us and those loose bunches. The table continues off the right edge of the canvas and comes to an end just short of the left edge. The artist signed the painting in the top right corner, “Fantin.”