Eugène Boudin (1824-1898) first worked in a picture framing and stationery shop in Le Havre but he was encouraged by artists who visited the shop, including the Barbizon painters Jean François Millet and Constant Troyon, to devote himself fully to art. He left the retail trade in 1846 and this accomplished still life was probably painted in his mid-twenties. The colours are muted but relieved by the sharp notes of the lemons and the warmth of the pears. It is the oysters that dominate the composition. Their succulent cream and white flesh and freshly opened shells are painted with a panache that Boudin was later to use in his more familiar seaside scenes.