Antique Oil-on-Wood Still Life Painting with Autumn Fruit dated 1927 - 12½" x 16¼"

This painting appears in a photograph on page 170 of Simply French. Signed and dated 1927, this small oil-on-wood still life was displayed in the yellow kitchen at Chanteduc, Patricia and Walter's farmhouse and cooking school in Vaison-la-Romaine. The painting depicts a generous arrangement of autumn fruit: apples, pears and a banana mounded on a white plate against a warm, tobacco-brown background. The palette runs through amber, ochre and gold, tones that sit naturally against a yellow kitchen wall. The brushwork is confident and unhurried, with a soft, almost velvety depth to the shadows that gives the fruit real weight and presence. The frame is handmade — Walter built it himself from wood in his workshop. Patricia exclaims, "I like food paintings in my kitchen!" and this one makes the case entirely on its own terms: it is warm, direct and genuinely appetizing without being decorative in a fussy way. A painting this size and this good-natured works in any kitchen, dining room or breakfast room where food and daily life are taken seriously. Hang it where the light catches those golden tones — near a window, above a shelf of preserves, or alongside a collection of market finds.