This is one of four still lifes commissioned from the artist in 1866 by Michael Spartali, a wealthy Greek businessman and diplomat who lived in London. Fantin-Latour worked on the suite of pictures from March through September, inspired to produce variations on an ambitious composition that he debuted at the Salon of 1866 (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.).

Inscription: Signed and dated (upper left): Fantin. 1866.

Michael Spartali, London (1866–67); Michael Spartali or Stavros Dilberoglou, London (from 1867); [Tempelaere, Paris]; [Lefevre, London]; sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, May 22, 1919, no. 16, as "Poires, pommes et fleurs," for Fr 34,000, to Graat et Madoulé for Gulbenkian; Calouste Gulbenkian, Paris (1919–48; gift to Cayrol); Monsieur Cayrol, Paris (from 1948); ?by descent, Mme Joel Hardion, Paris (until 1979); [Robert Schmit, Paris, David Carritt, London, Artemis, New York, and Lefevre, London, 1979–80]

Paris. Hôtel Jean Charpentier. "La Fleur: Peinture, Sculpture et Arts Appliqués du XVe au XIXe siècle," June 16–July 12, 1930, no. 21 (as "Poire, pommes et fleurs").

Paris. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais. "Fantin-Latour," November 9, 1982–February 7, 1983, no. 36 (as "Fleurs de printemps, pommes et poires").

Ottawa. National Gallery of Canada. "Fantin-Latour," March 17–May 22, 1983, no. 36.

San Francisco. California Palace of the Legion of Honor. "Fantin-Latour," June 18–September 6, 1983, no. 36.

Paris. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais. "Impressionnisme: Les origines, 1859–1869," April 19–August 8, 1994, no. 72 (as Fleurs de printemps, pommes et poires [Still Life with Flowers and Fruit]).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Origins of Impressionism," September 27, 1994–January 8, 1995, no. 72.

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "The Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800–1920," February 4–May 6, 2007, no. 71.

Berlin. Neue Nationalgalerie. "Französische Meisterwerke des 19.Jahrhunderts aus dem Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," June 1–October 7, 2007, unnumbered cat.

Madame Fantin-Latour. Catalogue de l'oeuvre complet (1849–1904) de Fantin-Latour. [reprint ed. 2000]. Paris, 1911, p. 40, no. 288.

Artemis 79–80: Consolidated Audited Annual Report (1980), pp. 40–41, no. 17, ill. (color), discusses the influence of Chardin; mentions a pendant in a private collection in England that also once belonged to Calouste Gulbenkian.

Charles S. Moffett and Anne Wagner in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Notable Acquisitions, 1979–1980. New York, 1980, pp. 43–44, ill. (color).

Denys Sutton. "Cross-Currents in Nineteenth-Century French Painting." Apollo 113, no. 230 (April 1981), p. 248, ill. on cover (color).

Douglas Druick. Fantin-Latour. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Canada. Ottawa, 1983, pp. 130–32, no. 36, ill. [French ed., "Fantin-Latour," 1982, pp. 115, 128–30, no. 36, ill], together with a similar still life by Fantin-Latour included in the Salon of 1866 (F285; National Gallery of Art, Washington), identifies the MMA work as one of four still lifes commissioned from Fantin in 1866 by Michael Spartali, a Greek living in London, two of which were bought the following year by Stravos Dilberoglou; suggests a still life now in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, and one in a private collection in England (F291) as the other two works in the group.

Charles S. Moffett. Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1985, pp. 20–21, ill. (overall and color detail).

Chuji Ikegami. "Period of Impressionism." New History of World Art. 22, Tokyo, 1993, p. 432, colorpl. 175, as "Fleurs de printemps, pommes et poires".

Henri Loyrette in Origins of Impressionism. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1994, pp. 174, 179, 296, 383, no. 72, fig. 212 (color) [French ed., Paris, 1994], discusses the question of its early provenance.

Paul de Roux. Fantin-Latour: Figures et fleurs. Paris, 1995, pp. 24–25, ill. (color).

Jean-Jacques Lévêque. Henri Fantin-Latour: Un peintre intimiste 1836–1904. Paris, 1996, ill. p. 131 (color).

Dianne W. Pitman. Bazille: Purity, Pose, and Painting in the 1860s. University Park, 1998, p. 80, fig. 49.

Susan Alyson Stein in The Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800–1920. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. New York, 2007, pp. 104–5, 213, no. 71, ill. (overall and detail, color and black and white).

Susan Alyson Stein in Masterpieces of European Painting, 1800–1920, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, pp. 119, 248–49, no. 108, ill. (color and black and white).

Gary Tinterow in Masterpieces of European Painting, 1800–1920, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, fig. 13 (installation photo).