At the end of his life, illness forced Manet to limit his work to the small-scale still lifes like this canvas and views of the garden around his house at Rueil, near Paris, where he lived during the summer of 1882.
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Open Access
As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.
API
Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:Strawberries
Artist:Edouard Manet (French, Paris 1832–1883 Paris)
Date:ca. 1882
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:8 3/8 x 10 1/2 in. (21.3 x 26.7 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Nate B. Spingold, 1956
Accession Number:56.230.1
Inscription: Signed (lower right): Manet
Auguste Pellerin, Paris (in 1902); Gaston Bernheim de Villers, Paris (by 1919–51; sold in July to Salz); [Sam Salz, New York, 1951; sold in August to Spingold]; Mr. and Mrs. Nate B. Spingold, New York (1951–56; his life interest, 1956–d. 1958; her life interest, 1956–d. 1976)
Berlin. Galerie Matthiesen. "Édouard Manet, 1832–1883," February 6–March 18, 1928, no. 80 (lent by a private collector, Paris).
New York. Greenwich House Music School Committee. 1953, no. ? (lent by Mr. Spingold) [see Rouart and Wildenstein 1975].
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Nate and Frances Spingold Collection," March 23–June 19, 1960, unnumbered cat.
Waltham, Mass. Dreitzer Gallery, Spingold Theater, Brandeis University. "Nate B. and Frances Spingold Collection," June 11–16, 1965, no catalogue.
Gifu, Japan. Musée des Beaux-Arts, Gifu. "Paris autour de 1882: Le développement de la peinture moderne en France et Hôsui Yamamoto," November 3–December 19, 1982, no. 77.
Kamakura. Kanagawa Museum of Modern Art. "Paris autour de 1882: Le développement de la peinture moderne en France et Hôsui Yamamoto," January 20–February 20, 1983, no. 77.
Dortmund. Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte. "Cézanne, Manet, Schuch: Drei Wege zur autonomen Kunst," May 30–July 30, 2000, no. 16.
Paris. Musée d'Orsay. "Manet, les natures mortes," October 9, 2000–January 7, 2001, no. 44.
Baltimore. Walters Art Gallery. "Manet: The Still-Life Paintings," January 30–April 22, 2001, unnumbered cat.
Albertinum, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. "Constable, Delacroix, Friedrich, Goya: Die Erschütterung der Sinne / A Shock to the Senses," March 16–August 4, 2013, unnumbered cat.
Art Institute of Chicago. "Manet and Modern Beauty: The Artist's Last Years," May 26–September 8, 2019, no. 79.
Los Angeles. J. Paul Getty Museum. "Manet and Modern Beauty: The Artist's Last Years," October 8, 2019–January 12, 2020, no. 79.
Théodore Duret. Histoire d'Édouard Manet et de son œuvre. Paris, 1902, pp. 273–74, no. 311, calls it "Une corbeille de fraises" and lists it as one of the pictures made at Rueil in 1882.
Etienne Moreau-Nélaton. Manuscrit de l'œuvre d'Édouard Manet, peinture et pastels. [1906], unpaginated, no. 306 [Département des Estampes, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris].
Théodore Duret. Manet and the French Impressionists. 2nd ed. [1st ed. 1910]. London, 1912, p. 246, no. 311.
L'art moderne et quelques aspects de l'art d'autrefois; cent-soixante-treize planches d'après la collection privée de MM. J. & G. Bernheim-Jeune. Paris, 1919, vol. 1, p. 92, pl. 78.
A. Tabarant. Manet, histoire catalographique. Paris, 1931, pp. 424–25, no. 386.
Paul Jamot and Georges Wildenstein. Manet. Paris, 1932, vol. 1, p. 178, no. 485; vol. 2, fig. 446.
Paul Colin. Édouard Manet. Paris, 1932, p. 181, pl. XCVI.
A. Tabarant. Manet et ses œuvres. 4th ed. (1st. ed. 1942). Paris, 1947, pp. 453–54, 544, no. 412.
Charles Sterling and Margaretta M. Salinger. French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 3, XIX–XX Centuries. New York, 1967, p. 52, ill.
Sandra Orienti inThe Complete Paintings of Manet. New York, 1967, p. 119, no. 395, ill.
Denis Rouart and Daniel Wildenstein. Édouard Manet, catalogue raisonné. Paris, 1975, vol. 1, pp. 300–301, no. 414, ill.
Kathleen Adler. Manet. Oxford, 1986, pp. 192–93, fig. 183, comments that the use of strawberries in still-lifes traditionally had a symbolic association with Christ's incarnation, but that this work is divested of such interpretation; notes that small works such as this one were intended as gifts.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 447, ill.
Juliet Wilson-Bareau. E-mail to Gary Tinterow. March 21, 2000, suggests that this painting might correspond to "Fraise" listed in Manet's account book as sold to Pertuiset in 1881 for Fr 100; proposes that because of the finish of this work it could have been painted earlier, at least 1880.
Heike Biedermann. Constable, Delacroix, Friedrich, Goya: Die Erschütterung der Sinne / A Shock to the Senses. Exh. cat., Albertinum, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. Dresden, 2013, pp. 154, 205–6, ill. (color).
Manet and Modern Beauty: The Artist's Last Years. Ed. Scott Allan, Emily A. Beeny, and Gloria Groom. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. Los Angeles, 2019, no. 79, ill. p. 261 (color).
Scott Allan inManet and Modern Beauty: The Artist's Last Years. Ed. Scott Allan, Emily A. Beeny, and Gloria Groom. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. Los Angeles, 2019, p. 39 n. 42, pp. 305 (under no. 58), 316–17, 320 (under no. 86), no. 79, ill., dates it about 1881–82, suggesting that it was either among the first still lifes Manet produced in Rueil in 1882 (given strawberry season and that he rented there from July on), or produced previous to that year and sold to Pertuiset in 1881 (following Wilson-Bareau 2000).
Emily A. Beeny inManet and Modern Beauty: The Artist's Last Years. Ed. Scott Allan, Emily A. Beeny, and Gloria Groom. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. Los Angeles, 2019, p. 105, includes it among the artist's still lifes that betray Chardin's influence.
Carol Armstrong inManet and Modern Beauty: The Artist's Last Years. Ed. Scott Allan, Emily A. Beeny, and Gloria Groom. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. Los Angeles, 2019, p. 118, calls it "Chardinesque".
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
