“Stringed Figure,” 1937. Cherry wood and string on oak base from the collection of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.

BOSTON, MASS. – From February 17 through June 9, The Phillips Collection and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston will present the first major exhibition devoted to Impressionist still life.

Artists represented in the exhibition include Basil, Caillebotte, Cassatt, Cezanne, Courbet, Degas, Fantin-Latour, Gauguin, van Gogh, Gonzales, Manet, Monet, Morisot, Pissarro, Renoir and Sisley.

While much attention has been devoted to the study of Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century still life painting, scholars and curators have tended to overlook French still life of this period – a category with a special integrity of its own.

“Impressionist Still Life” will trace the development of the movement from its origins in Realism through its transformation in the late work of Cezanne. Although there are strong connections with Dutch, Spanish and French still life of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, the exhibition will demonstrate that during the latter part of the Nineteenth Century, many artists reinvigorated still life painting as a serious and worthy endeavor.

As the Twentieth Century approached, artists liberated still life from many conventions of the past. They embraced a wider range of subject matter and in certain instances transformed the interpretation of traditional subjects through a combination of new attitudes and different approaches to composition. The works range in size and ambition from the baroque complexity of Cezanne’s “The Kitchen Table” (Musee d’Orsay, Paris) to the simple and immediate brilliance of Manet’s “Bouquet of Violets” (Private collection) and van Gogh’s “Blossoming Almond Branch in a Glass” (Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam).

The exhibition ran at The Phillips Collection until January 13; the Boston exhibition will be accompanied by a major publication that will draw upon the expertise of the curatorial staffs of both institutions as well as the contributions of other scholars in the field.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 465 Huntington Avenue, is open Monday and Tuesday, 10 am to 4:45 pm; Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, 10 am to 9:45 pm; Saturday and Sunday, 10 am to 5:45 pm. For information, 617-267-9300.