Claude Monet probably painted this and other still lifes in 1879 - 80, knowing that they would be more readily marketable than his landscapes. In Apples and Grapes, however, he employed the complexity of color, light, and texture found in his most Impressionist landscapes. This is particularly evident in the extensive cloth surface - the play of light on the horizontal brushstrokes (indicating the folds in the tablecloth) recalls earlier canvases in which Monet used similar short horizontals of variegated colors to suggest water rippling in the sunlight.