Basket of Fruits 1864

Edouard Manet’s “Basket of Fruits” was made using oil paint on canvas, an archetypal fine art material. The visible brushstrokes are as crucial to its appearance as the objects represented. Look closely, and you'll see how the thickness and direction of the paint describes the form of the fruit and the woven texture of the basket. The knife in the foreground is rendered with striking directness, as though the artist were making a claim on the viewer’s attention. Manet was part of a generation of painters who turned away from historical and allegorical subjects. Instead, they looked to everyday life, and the rapidly changing world around them. The making of a painting like this was of course work, but a new kind of work - artistic labor, as opposed to the more traditional labor of craft. This shift was part of a larger transformation of the social order, the rise of the creative individual, and the art market as we know it. Considering the means of production, and social context, we get a fuller understanding of this deceptively simple still life. It challenges traditional distinctions between fine art and craft.