Three Peaches on a Stone Ledge with a Painted Lady Butterfly

Three peaches rest on a bare stone ledge against a black ground. Each peach is different: the one at left pale and rounded, the middle one flushed with a streak of deep coral-red, the right one paler with a single soft rose blush. A painted lady butterfly hovers in the black space above, rendered in delicate cream, orange, and black. A single peach leaf extends from the stone ledge at lower right. The ledge is signed "AC" in small gold letters at the front edge. The painting is tiny — Coorte worked almost exclusively at a small scale — and the whole image depends on the relationship between three pieces of fruit and a single butterfly, lit from above against the dark. Coorte painted variations of this composition throughout his career; the peaches, the ledge, and the single hovering butterfly were among his most repeated motifs.