Grapes, Peaches and Quinces in a Niche

Grapes, peaches and quinces stand in a stone niche, and the shadow of the box beside them falls across the niche's front edge. The museum reads that shadow, together with the low point of view, as a sign that the panel was meant to hang high, perhaps above a door, where it would be seen from below.

Snyders could make his brushwork precise and almost invisible when he wanted to. Here he works fast, close to a sketch, which suits a picture meant to be taken in from across a room. There is no game in it, no animals and none of the crowded tables he is best known for, only the fruit and the box in their stone recess.

The museum bought the panel in 1946 from the New York dealer Frederick Mont, for $1,250.