Édouard Manet (1832–1883), France, Fish (Still Life), 1864, oil on canvas, 28 15/16 x 36 3/8 in. (73.5 x 92.4 cm), Art Institute of Chicago; Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection, 1942.311

Audio Description

Fish (Still Life) is a three-foot wide oil painting on canvas, made in 1864 by the French artist Édouard Manet, who lived from 1832 to 1883. It is part of the Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection at The Art Institute of Chicago, where its reference number is 1942.311.

The painting shows a tabletop covered with a white tablecloth. A pile of oysters, some shucked, spills out of view at the left. Beside it a small red fish looks out at the viewer, next to a large fish with a white belly that lies on its side. A slender black eel is near the front edge of the table, and a lemon and knife rest at the far right, where the tablecloth is folded over revealing the dark wood skirt of the table. A large copper pot sits behind and to the right of the fish. 

Label Copy

Fish (Still Life) is a three-foot wide oil painting on canvas, made in 1864 by the French artist Édouard Manet, who lived from 1832 to 1883. It is part of the Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection at The Art Institute of Chicago, where its reference number is 1942.311.

“A painter can express all that he wants with fruit and flowers, or even clouds,” Édouard Manet once noted to a younger colleague, implying that through the act of painting the humble subjects of a still life can be transformed into a great work of art.

Manet’s canvas depicts a large, diagonally positioned carp surrounded by oysters, a red mullet, a slithering eel, a lemon, a knife, and a reflective copper stockpot. The artist crops the scene tightly and chooses a viewpoint close to the tabletop, pushing the glistening fish almost uncomfortably toward us. Meanwhile, his brilliant brushwork animates the composition and emphasizes the physicality of the paint surface.

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