At the foot of an old stone wall the last of the summer fruit lies where it fell, grapes and pomegranates gone heavy and ripe in the cool of the moss. Found in Le Perche and dating to the 19th century, this large oil is worked in deep, earthy tones, a split pomegranate spilling its seeds at the front and the blue of the grapes glowing against the dark. Fruit scattered on the ground like this was a favorite of the old still-life painters, a way of showing nature's abundance as something found rather than staged, the pomegranate cut open to prove how ripe it all was. Sylvie hangs it large over a sideboard or a dining table, a spill of late-summer fruit that never has to be cleared away.
