Red Mullets (Les Rougets), c. 1870 by Claude Monet

Red Mullets (Les Rougets), painted by Claude Monet around 1870 presents a pair of freshly caught mullets resting on a rumpled white cloth, their coral-pink scales set against a muted olive tabletop. Seen from a raised viewpoint, the closely cropped composition nods to Manet and the French still-life tradition while hinting at the meal soon to come. Painted at the close of a decade of still-life experimentation, it shows the young Monet honing the fluid brushwork that would soon define Impressionism, and the canvas now hangs in the Harvard Art Museums.

Artist: Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926). Date: c. 1870.

Red Mullets (Les Rougets), c. 1870 by Claude Monet. Impressionist Still Life Canvas Print.