Flower and Fruit Piece. Composition from Several Paintings in the Louvre by Van Huysum, Van Spaendonk, De Heem, Mignon, and from Nature

At the exhibition of the Montreal Society of Artists in 1847, visitors could obtain permission to copy the paintings. Many of the works exhibited, such as the Flower and Fruit Piece by Krieghoff, were themselves copies, as a letter to the editor of the Pilot and Journal of Commerce pointed out: “By referring to the catalogue, we find that a great number of the paintings are copies. We are not in the least astonished, that in so short a time some of the artists and amateurs were not fully prepared to furnish originals; notwithstanding that, there is a number far more than sufficient to serve as criterions of the merits of the contributors.”