Fruits of the Midi

CC0 Public Domain Designation

1881

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841–1919)

Status: On View, Gallery 201
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Title: Fruits of the Midi
Place: France (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1881
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Inscribed lower left: Renoir 81
Dimensions: 51 × 65 cm (20 1/16 × 25 5/8 in.); Framed: 70.1 × 85 cm (27 5/8 × 33 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection
Reference Number: 1933.1176
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/16629/manifest.json

Possibly Durand-Ruel, Paris, Catalogue de l’exposition des oeuvres de P.-A. Renoir, exh. cat. (Pillet & Dumoulin, 1883), p. 12, cat. 27.
Possibly Edmond Jacques [Edmond Bazire], “Beaux-arts: Exposition de M. P.-A. Renoir,” L’intransigeant, Apr. 11, 1883, p. 2.
Possibly Paul Gilbert, “Exposition de M. P.-A. Renoir,” Journal des artistes, Apr. 13, 1883, p. 1.
Moore’s Art Galleries, New York, The Durand-Ruel Collection of French Paintings, sale cat. (Moore’s Art Galleries, May 5–6, 1887), p. 28, lot 92, as Fruit of the South.
Possibly Durand-Ruel, New York, Exhibition of Paintings by Claude Monet and Pierre Auguste Renoir, exh. cat. (Durand-Ruel, New York, 1900), no. 29.
Durand-Ruel, New York, Exhibition of Paintings by Pierre Auguste Renoir, exh. cat. (Durand-Ruel, New York, 1908), no. 8.
Possibly Durand-Ruel, New York, Exhibition of Paintings Representing Still Life and Flowers by Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Sisley, André d’Espagnat, exh. cat. (Durand Ruel, New York, [1913]), cat. 14.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection (Art Institute of Chicago, 1925), p. 162, cat. 2155.
M. C., “Renoirs in the Institute (Continued),” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 19, 4 (Apr. 1925), pp. 47, 49 (ill.).
Ambroise Vollard, Renoir: An Intimate Record, trans. Harold L. Van Doren and Randolph T. Weaver (Knopf, 1925), p. 240.
Julius Meier-Graefe, Renoir (Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1929), p. 153, no. 134.
Art Institute of Chicago, Catalogue of “A Century of Progress”: Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture; Lent from American Collections, ed. Daniel Catton Rich, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1933), p. 49, cat. 343.
Daniel Catton Rich, “The Paintings of Martin A. Ryerson,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 27, 1 (Jan. 1933), p. 9.
Daniel Catton Rich, “Französische Impressionisten im Art Institute zu Chicago,” Pantheon: Monatsschrift für Freunde und Sammler der Kunst 11, 3 (Mar. 1933), p. 78. Translated by C. C. H. Dreschel as “French Impressionists in the Art Institute of Chicago,” Pantheon/Cicerone (Mar. 1933), p. 18.
Pennsylvania Museum of Art, “Manet and Renoir,” Pennsylvania Museum Bulletin 29, 158 (Dec. 1933), p. 19.
Art Institute of Chicago, Catalogue of “A Century of Progress”: Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, 1934, ed. Daniel Catton Rich, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1934), p. 39, cat. 232.
Albert C. Barnes and Violette de Mazia, The Art of Renoir (Minton, Balch, 1935), pp. 77; 79; 88; 132; 453, no. 115.
Henry McBride, “The Renoirs of America: An Appreciation of the Metropolitan Museum’s Exhibition,” Art News 35, 31 (May 1, 1937), p. 60.
Rosamund Frost, Pierre August Renoir, Hyperion Art Monographs, ed. Aimèe Crane (Hyperion/Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1944), p. 43 (ill.).
“Chicago Perfects Its Renoir Group,” Art News 44, 16, pt. 1 (Dec. 1–14, 1945), p. 18 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, An Illustrated Guide to the Collections of the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 1945), p. 36.
Walter Pach, Pierre-August Renoir, Library of Great Painters (Abrams, 1950), pp. 72–73 (ill.). Translated as Auguste Renoir: Leben und Werk (M. DuMont Schauberg, 1976), pp. 109, pl. 13; 116; 168.
Dorothy Bridaham, Renoir in the Art Institute of Chicago (Conzett & Huber, 1954), pl. 6.
Michel Drucker, Renoir (Pierre Tisné, 1955), pl. 74; p. 154.
Bruno F. Schneider, Renoir (Safari, [1957]), pp. 61 (ill.), 68, 86. Translated into English by Desmond and Camille Clayton as Renoir (Crown, 1978), pp. 61 (ill.), 68, 86.
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Art Institute of Chicago, 1961), p. 397.
Acquavella Galleries, Four Master of Impressionism, exh. cat. (Acquavella Galleries, 1968), cat. 29 (ill.).
Barbara Ehrlich White, “Renoir’s Trip to Italy,” Art Bulletin 51, 4 (Dec. 1969), pp. 338; 339; 341; fig. 26; 346, no. 20.
Charles C. Cunningham and Satoshi Takahashi, Shikago bijutsukan [Art Institute of Chicago], Museums of the World 32 (Kodansha, 1970), pp. 52, pl. 38; 160.
François Daulte, Auguste Renoir: Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint, vol. 1, Figures, 1860–1890 (Durand-Ruel, 1971), pp. 12–13.
Elda Fezzi, L’opera completa di Renoir: Nel periodo impressionista, 1869–1883, Classici dell’arte 59 (Rizzoli, 1972), pp. 72, pl. 56; 110, cat. 486 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings by Renoir, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1973), pp. 100–01, cat. 36 (ill.); 210; 211.
Sophie Monneret, L’impressionnisme et son époque: Dictionnaire international illustré, vol. 2 (Denoël, 1979), p. 178 (ill.).
Barbara Ehrlich White, Renoir: His Life, Art, and Letters (Abrams, 1984), p. 166.
Richard R. Brettell, French Impressionists (Art Institute of Chicago/Abrams, 1987), pp. 66–67 (detail), 69 (ill.), 119.
Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), State Hermitage Museum, Ot Delakrua do Matissa: Shedevry frantsuzskoi zhivopisi XIX–nachala XX veka, iz Muzeia Metropoliten v N’iu-Iorke i Khudozhestvennogo Instituta v Chikago [From Delacroix to Matisse: Great masterpieces of French painting of the nineteenth to the beginning of the twentieth century from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Art Institute of Chicago], exh. cat. (Avrora, 1988), cat. 22 (ill.).
Sophie Monneret, Renoir, Profils de l’art (Chêne, 1989), p. 98, no. 1 (ill.).
Gilles Plazy, Cézanne, Profils de l’art (Chêne, 1991), p. 100, no. 2 (ill.).
Lesley Stevenson, Renoir (Bison, 1991), p. 119 (ill.).
Richard Verdi, Cézanne (Thames & Hudson, 1992), pp. 11, ill. 5; 211.
James Yood, Feasting: A Celebration of Food in Art; Paintings from the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago/Universe, 1992), pp. 56–57, pl. 19 (ill. and detail).
Art Institute of Chicago, Treasures of 19th- and 20th-Century Painting: The Art Institute of Chicago, with an introduction by James N. Wood (Art Institute of Chicago/Abbeville, 1993), p. 85 (ill.).
Gerhard Gruitrooy, Renoir: A Master of Impressionism (Todtri, 1994), pp. 56–57 (detail), 65 (ill.).
Natalia Brodskaïa, Auguste Renoir: He Made Colour Sing, trans. Paul Williams, Great Painters (Parkstone/Aurora Art, 1996), pp. 134–135, no. 29.
Francesca Castellani, Pierre-Auguste Renoir: La vita e l’opera (Mondadori, 1996), p. 156 (ill.).
Douglas W. Druick, Renoir, Artists in Focus (Art Institute of Chicago/Abrams, 1997), pp. 53 (detail); 54–55; 57; 94, pl. 13; 110.
Pamela Todd, The Impressionists’ Table: A Celebration of Regional French Food through the Palettes of the Great Impressionists (Pavilion, 1997), pp. 156 (ill.), 192.
Colin B. Bailey, with the assistance of John B. Collins, Renoir’s Portraits: Impressions of an Age, exh. cat. (National Gallery of Canada/Yale University Press, 1997), p. 18.
Art Institute of Chicago, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism in the Art Institute of Chicago, selected by James N. Wood (Art Institute of Chicago/Hudson Hills, 2000), p. 65 (ill.).
Gilles Néret, Renoir: Painter of Happiness, 1841–1919, trans. Josephine Bacon (Taschen, 2001), p. 146 (ill.)
Katsumi Miyazaki, “The Formal Elements of Renoir’s Art and His Relationship with Cézanne,” in Bridgestone Museum of Art and Nagoya City Art Museum, Renoir: From Outsider to Old Master, 1870–1892, trans. Yumiko Yamazaki, exh. cat. (Bridgestone Museum of Art/Nagoya City Art Museum/Chunichi Shimbun, 2001), pp. 183, fig. 64; 184; 237, fig. 64; 238.
Bruce Weber, The Heart of the Matter: The Still Lifes of Marsden Hartley, exh. cat. (Berry-Hill Galleries, 2003), p. 15, fig. 6.
Aviva Burnstock, Klaas Jan van den Berg, and John House, “Painting Techniques of Pierre-Auguste Renoir: 1868–1919,” Art Matters: Netherlandish Technical Studies in Art 3 (2005), p. 52.
Kyoko Kagawa, Runowaru [Pierre-Auguste Renoir], Seiyo Kaiga no Kyosho [Great masters of Western art] 4 (Shogakukan, 2006), p. 97 (ill.).
Guy-Patrice Dauberville and Michel Dauberville, with the collaboration of Camille Frémontier-Murphy, Renoir: Catalogue raisonné des tableaux, pastels, dessins, et aquarelles, vol. 1, 1858–1881 (Bernheim-Jeune, 2007), p. 135, cat. 44 (ill.).
John House, The Genius of Renoir: Paintings from the Clark, with an essay by James A. Ganz, exh. cat. (Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute/Museo Nacional del Prado/Yale University Press, 2010), p. 96.
“Cat. 14: Fruits of the Midi, 1881,” in Renoir Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, ed. Gloria Groom and Jill Shaw (Art Institute of Chicago, 2014), https://publications.artic.edu/renoir/reader/paintingsanddrawings/section/138973.

Probably Paris, Durand-Ruel, Exposition des oeuvres de P.-A. Renoir, Apr. 1–25, 1883, cat. 27, as Nature morte (Naples).
Possibly New York, National Academy of Design, Celebrated Paintings by Great French Masters, May 25–June 30, 1887, not in cat.
Possibly New York, Durand-Ruel, Paintings by Claude Monet and Pierre August Renoir, Apr. 1900, cat. 29, as Fruits du midi.
New York, Durand-Ruel, Exhibition of Paintings by Pierre Auguste Renoir, Nov. 14–Dec. 5, 1908, cat. 8, as Fruits du midi, 1881.
Possibly New York, Durand-Ruel, Exhibition of Paintings Representing Still Life and Flowers by Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Sisley, André d’Espagnat, Dec. 20, 1913–Jan. 8, 1914, cat. 14, as Fruits du midi.
Art Institute of Chicago, “A Century of Progress”: Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, May 23–Nov. 1, 1933, cat. 343.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Museum of Art, Manet and Renoir, Nov. 29, 1933–Jan. 1, 1934, no cat. no.
Art Institute of Chicago, “A Century of Progress”: Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture for 1934, June 1–Oct. 31, 1934, cat. 232.
Cambridge, Mass., Fogg Art Museum, Loan Exhibition of Paintings of Still Life, Apr. 28–May 24, 1947, no cat.
New York, Acquavella Galleries, Four Masters of Impressionism, Oct. 24–Nov. 30, 1968, cat. 29 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings by Renoir, Feb. 3–Apr. 1, 1973, cat. 36 (ill.).
Leningrad [St. Petersburg], Hermitage Museum, Ot Delakrua do Matissa: shedevry frantsuzskoĭ zhivopici XIX-nachala XX veka, iz Muieia Metropoliten v Niu-Ĭorke i Khudozhestvennogo Instituta v Chikago [From Delacroix to Matisse: Great Paintings From the XIX century to the Beginning of the XXth century From Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago], March 15-May 19, 1988, cat. 22; Moscow, Pushkin Museum, June 10-July 30, 1988.
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago’s Dream, a World’s Treasure: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1893–1993, Nov. 1, 1993–Jan. 9, 1994, not in cat.

The artist (d. 1919); probably sold to Durand-Ruel, Paris, May 23, 1882, for 600 francs [per Daulte 1971]. Possibly sold at Moore’s Art Galleries, New York, May 6, 1887, lot 92 [per Moore’s Art Gallery sale catalogue 1887, although the Durand-Ruel Archive states “la vente à la ‘Moore’s Art Galleries’: il s’agissait d’une vente fictive (aucun tableau n’a été vendu) destinée à faire de la publicité pour les tableaux apportés par Durand-Ruel à New York,” Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel and Flavie Durand-Ruel, Durand-Ruel Archives, Oct. 5, 2010, curatorial object file]. Durand-Ruel, New York, by Nov. 14, 1908 [per Durand-Ruel, New York, Exhibition of Paintings by Pierre Auguste Renoir, exh. cat. (Durand-Ruel, New York, 1908), no. 8. For the identification of no. 8 as the Art Institute’s painting, see Dauberville and Dauberville 2007. It is possible that Durand-Ruel acquired the painting by April 1900; see Durand-Ruel, New York, Exhibition of Paintings by Claude Monet and Pierre Auguste Renoir, exh. cat. (Durand-Ruel, New York, 1900), no. 29]; sold to Martin A. Ryerson (d. 1932), Chicago, Dec. 18, 1915, for $10,200 [per Durand-Ruel Archives, Renoir’s “Fruits du Midi, 1881” (New York Stock no. 115—New York Photo No. A 915), as confirmed by Caroline Durand-Ruel Godfroy, Durand-Ruel Archives, to the Art Institute of Chicago, Dec. 13, 1994, curatorial object file, Art Institute of Chicago. A purchase receipt on Durand-Ruel letterhead, dated Dec. 21, 1915, includes this painting as one of a number sold by Durand-Ruel, New York, to M. A. Ryerson, photocopy in curatorial object file, Art Institute of Chicago’]; bequeathed to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.

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