Still Life with Birds and Fruit

About the Artwork

Garzoni was one of the few women artists to achieve prominence in Italy during the 1600s. She garnered fame with her naturalistic still lifes on vellum, which combined scientific accuracy with sensitive artistry. Here, three small goldfinches on fruit branches and a larger bee-eater are dispersed across an earth-toned ground. The goldfinches sit on branches from which hang two plums (left), a peach (center), and a pear (right). A yellow quince and purple fig appear in the left foreground. Garzoni’s refined interpretations of the natural world suited the taste of aristocratic patrons like the Medici family, who acquired her drawings to decorate their villas.

Provenance

?-1954: Elma M. Schniewind [1875-1954], Cleveland, OH March 10, 1955: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Exhibition history

Drawings from the Museum Collection: 15th-17th Centuries. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 18-October 11, 1960). Water Color. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 6-August 27, 1962). European Watercolors Through the 18th Century. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 14-March 22, 1964). Florentine Baroque in American Collections. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (April 16-June 15, 1969). Women Artists, 1550 - 1950. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (organizer) (December 21, 1976-March 13, 1977); Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX (April 12-June 12, 1977); Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA (July 14-September 4, 1977); The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY (October 1-November 27, 1977). The Magic of Still Life. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 4, 1986-February 1, 1987). Concept, Dogma and Feeling: Italian Drawings 1550-1650. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 20, 1991). Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002). The Flowering of Florence: Botanical Art for the Medici, 1550-1750. National Gallery of Art (organizer) (March 3-May 27, 2002). Treasures on Paper from the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 9-June 8, 2014). Making Her Mark: A History of Women Artists in Europe, 1400-1800. The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD (co-organizer) (October 1, 2023-January 7, 2024) https://artbma.org/exhibition/making-her-mark-a-history-of-women-artists-in-europe-1400-1800; Art Gallery of Ontario, Ontario M5T 1G4, Canada (organizer) (co-organizer) (March 27-July 1, 2024) https://ago.ca/exhibitions/making-her-mark-history-women-artists-europe-1400-1800.

Quick Overview

Artist: Giovanna Garzoni (Italian, 1600–1670)
Date: c. 1650
Medium: watercolor with graphite, heightened with lead white
Dimensions: Sheet: 25.7 x 41.6 cm (10 1/8 x 16 3/8 in.)
Type: Drawing
Classification: Drawing
Department: Drawings
Credit line: Bequest of Mrs. Elma M. Schniewind in memory of her parents Mr. and Mrs. Frank Geib
Accession no.: 1955.140

Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.