Still Life
A table, a vessel, a few things arranged under a window: still life gave painters a subject they could control completely, and they used it to test light, texture and the passing of time. The genre's quiet surface often carries a moral about abundance and decay.
North wall

Roses in a VaseUnrecorded French maker, 1880/1900Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington 
Still Life—Violin and MusicWilliam Michael Harnett, 1888Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art 
Still LifePieter Claesz, c. 1625Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago 
Great Indian Fruit BatBhawani Das, ca. 1777–82Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
East wall

Breakfast Still LifeWillem Claesz. Heda, 1647Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago 
Factory--Study for "Ironworkers, Noontime"/Verso: Still Life with OrangeThomas Anshutz, (1880)Courtesy of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution 
A Woman Seated beside a Vase of Flowers (Madame Paul Valpinçon?)Edgar Degas, 1865Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art 
Pomegranates and Other Fruit in a LandscapeAbraham BrueghelCourtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
West wall

Melons and Morning GloriesRaphaelle Peale, 1813Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum 
Still Life with Shells and a Chip-Wood BoxSebastian Stoskopff, late 1620sCourtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art 
An Orange Note: Sweet ShopJames McNeill Whistler, 1883 or 1884Courtesy of the National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution 
Still Life with Fan and RosesThomas Hovenden, 1874Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
South wall

Woman in Front of a Still Life by CezannePaul Gauguin, 1890Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago 
Still Life with Apples and a Pot of PrimrosesPaul Cézanne, ca. 1890Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art 
Fish (Still Life)Édouard Manet, 1864Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago 
Trompe-l'Oeil Still Life with a Flower Garland and a CurtainAdriaen van der Spelt, 1658Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago