Moldy Fruit: Public Domain Decay Illustrations
Moldy Fruit! Get your moldy fruit here! We’ve got mold! We’ve got weird spots and bruises! Nobody beats our lumps and discoloration!
Yeah, decay is bad. It always seems to be inconveniently lurking between shower tiles and inside the forgotten corners of the refrigerator. Nevertheless it can also be interesting aesthetically.
Government Funded Decay
These watercolor images come from the massive USDA fruit illustration archive known as the USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection. Between 1886 and 1942 artists employed by the US government painted an incredible variety of fruit in accurate watercolor paintings. There are papayas and persimmons, chayotes and avocados, peaches and pears and thousands of apples. In fact there are 3807 images of apples in the collection in thousands of cultivars. You may find contemporary fruit favorites like Granny Smith and Red Delicious as well as mostly forgotten varieties such as Detroit Red and Ben Davis.
1912
1910
Lemon 1912
You're Perfect in My Heart
The artists painted plenty of blemish-free fruit which were used to illustrate the covers of various publications by the USDA. They were depicting real fruit though, and from time to time the artists worked on fruits that weren’t so perfect. Sometimes the fruits they received were damaged by diseases, climate, improper handling and transportation. Accordingly, the gifted illustrators captured all of this. Accuracy was important so that plant breeders might develop fruit varieties that were less susceptible to these issues.
For example, the dried up lemon above is not merely a representation of a dried up lemon. It was an actual lemon that artist James Marion Shull had in front of him back in 1912. Not only that, but he painstakingly depicted every tiny flake of its surface.
1912
Pomelo (bottom) 1918
We chose to restore 16 of the moldiest, lumpiest, most blemished apples, lemons, oranges, pears, persimmons, pineapples and pomelos. They’re in the public domain and cleaned up of dust and scratches (and background free). You can use them for any personal or commercial project.
