Perche Still Life Artwork

Someone set a basket of fruit on a rush chair by the window and thought it worth painting, which is the whole quiet art of the still life. Found in Le Perche and dating to the 20th century, it is a small oil on board, a woven basket of pears and peaches caught in soft afternoon light, signed in the lower corner. The still life has always been the painter's way of holding onto the ordinary, a bowlful that would be gone by evening kept for good in paint. Sylvie leans it on a shelf among other small paintings, or props it on a kitchen counter where the painted fruit can sit beside the real.