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| Abraham Mignon Interior with Still Life ca. 1660-79 oil on canvas Ashmolean Museum, Oxford |
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| Willem van Aelst Still Life of Fruit ca. 1667 oil on canvas Ashmolean Museum, Oxford |
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| Luis Meléndez Still Life with Lemons and Nuts ca, 1765-75 oil on canvas York City Art Gallery |
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| Gustave Courbet Apple, Pear, Orange ca, 1871-72 oil on panel Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow |
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| Paul Cézanne Overturned Basket of Fruit ca. 1877 oil on canvas Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow |
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| Jane André Still Life 1885 oil on panel Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham |
The Woman Who Turned Down a Date with a Cherry Farmer
Fredonia, NY
Of course I regret it. I mean there I was under umbrellas of fruit
so red they had to be borne of Summer, and no other season.
Flip-flops and fishhooks. Ice cubes made of lemonade and sprigs
of mint to sip in blue glasses of tea. I was dusty, my ponytail
all askew and the tips of my fingers ran, of course, red
from the fruitwounds of cherries I plunked into my bucket
and still – he must have seen some small bit of loveliness
in walking his orchard with me. He pointed out which trees
were sweetest, which ones bore double seeds – puffing out
the flesh and oh the surprise on your tongue with two tiny stones
(a twin spit), making a small gun of your mouth. Did I mention
my favorite color is red? His jeans were worn and twisty
around the tops of his boots; his hands thick but careful,
nimble enough to pull fruit from his trees without tearing
the thin skin; the cherry dust and fingerprints on his eyeglasses.
I just know when he stuffed his hands in his pockets, said
Okay. Couldn't hurt to try? and shuffled back to his roadside stand
to arrange his jelly jars and stacks of buckets, I had made
a terrible mistake. I just know my summer would've been
full of pies, tartlets, turnovers – so much jubilee.
– Aimee Nezhukumatathil (2003)
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| Harold Gilman Still Life with Pears on a Plate before 1919 oil on canvas National Trust, Fenton House, London |
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| Jean Marchand Still Life with Fruit and Candlestick ca. 1920 oil on canvas Courtauld Gallery, London |
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| Roderic O'Conor Still Life with Bowl of Fruit by a Window 1924 oil on canvas Courtauld Gallery, London |
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| Mark Gertler Apples in a Bag 1925 oil on cardboard Ashmolean Museum, Oxford |
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| Christopher Wood Still Life with a Tureen and Fruit 1925 oil on panel Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool |
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| Leonard Appelbee Pears and Blue Paper ca. 1952 oil on canvas Government Art Collection, London |
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| Lucian Freud Bananas 1952 oil on canvas Southampton City Art Gallery |
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| Alan Fletcher Two Pears on a Plate 1958 oil on canvas Aberdeen Art Gallery |
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| Eliot Hodgkin Quinces 1969 tempera on board Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh |