Artist

Louise Moillon

Still life with a basket of fruit and a bunch of asparagus.

• French, 1610-1696
• Oil on Panel, 53.3 x 71.3 cm
• Art Institute of Chicago; Wirt D. Walker Fund, 1948.78

The Artist

Born into a family of artists – her father and her stepfather were painters and art dealers, and her brother was a painter – Louise Moillon specialized in still life painting, especially of fruits and vegetables. Her patrons included members of the French nobility, and even Charles I of England. Because she was a French Protestant, her life was disrupted by the Edict of Nantes; at least one of her children converted to Catholicism, while two others sought refuge in England. Most of the 40 or so works attributed to her today are from before 1640, though a few are from the 1670s.

Learn more about Moillon’s painting Still Life with a Basket of Fruit and a Bunch of Asparagus: Art Institute of Chicago

Books about Louise Moillon

Nonfiction

Louise Moillon: Seventeenth century still-life artist, by Helen Chastain Sowa (Chateau Publishing, 1998)

Louyse Moillon. Still-lifes in the Grand Siècle. Catalogue raisonné by Dominique Alsina (Dijon Faton, 2008)

Learn more online about Louise Moillon at:

The National Museum of Women in the Arts: Explore >

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza: Explore >