Peaches, apples, a loose bunch of green grapes spilling over the rim. Everything a French still life should be and nothing it should not.

This is an original oil on canvas, signed lower left, French School, late 19th to early 20th century. The composition follows the classic French fruit bowl tradition with quiet authority: a shallow ceramic bowl at the centre piled with ripe peaches and apples in warm reds and amber, green grapes cascading over the edge, a suggestion of rose petals and dark foliage behind. The palette is rich without being heavy, the brushwork loose and assured, each piece of fruit painted with the light confident touch of someone thoroughly at home in this subject.

The signature is a flowing cursive hand, lower left, partially legible.

Condition is good. Honest age consistent with the period.

Sourced in France.

Presented in what appears to be its original pressed giltwood frame with oval cartouches at the centres and foliate corner decoration, warm and well matched to the painting. Ready to hang.

A painting that belongs in a dining room, a kitchen, a sitting room or anywhere that benefits from the particular warmth of ripe fruit painted in the French tradition. One of those quietly joyful works that earns its place on a wall immediately and never outstays its welcome.

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