Autumn Foods in Still Life Paintings: From Chardin to Cézanne

In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin's painting 'Still Life with Teapot, Grapes, Chestnuts, and a Pear' (c. 1764) features three chestnuts positioned in the left corner with grapes, pears, and a teapot. At the McLean County Museum of History in Bloomington, Illinois, Alfred Montgomery's 'Still Life of Barrels' (1880/1920) highlights corn; Montgomery (1857–1922) was a Kansas artist known for his realist style and work as a grade-school art teacher. Paul Cézanne's 'The Plate of Apples' (c. 1877) is displayed at the Art Institute of Chicago. A Roman School piece, 'Still Life with Fruit on a Stone Ledge' (c. 1605–1610), attributed to an unknown follower of Caravaggio, includes squashes. Štefan Michal-Vörös Izbighy's 'Still Life with Pumpkins and Cucumbers' (1734) can be found at the Slovak National Gallery in Bratislava. Eastman Johnson's 'The Cranberry Harvest, Island of Nantucket' (1880) at the Timken Museum of Art in San Diego illustrates cranberry harvesting on Nantucket, which was once home to the largest cranberry bog globally. Johnson's 'Corn Husking at Nantucket' (c. 1875) is part of The Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection in New York.