Influenced by Japanese art, Fantin-Latour gradually simplified his still lifes, often focusing on a single variety of fruit, set against a neutral background. The first owner of this work was the British lawyer, painter and etcher Edwin Edwards (1823 – 1879), who acted as Fantin-Latour’s agent in England during the 1870s, selling these paintings to an eager British market. Every autumn Fantin-Latour would send his completed canvases to Edwards’s wife Elizabeth, who would arrange to have them framed and invite any prospective clients to the house to view them.