Prunes et abricots

Prunes et abricots is part of an elaborate group of canvases that Monet executed between 1882 and 1885 to decorate the apartment of his dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel, at 35 rue de Rome in Paris. A leading scholar of Monet's work, Paul Hayes Tucker, refers to the commission as 'one of the artist's major preoccupations between 1882 and 1885' and describes the paintings as 'charming, lusciously painted, and often quite novel' (in Claude Monet: Life and Art, New Haven, 1995, p. 122). Thirty-six of the paintings (Wildenstein nos. 919-954), including twenty-nine flower still-lifes and seven images of fruit, were hung in 1885 on the six double doors in Durand-Ruel's large drawing-room. Four additional paintings (W. 955-958), including the present one, were acquired by Durand-Ruel at the same time, but do not seem to have been used to decorate the doors.