January 17, 2026

Caravaggio’s “Boy with a Basket of Fruit” in Focus at The Morgan Library & Museum, January 16 through April 19, 2026

“The Morgan Library & Museum presents Caravaggio’s ‘Boy with a Basket of Fruit‘ in Focus, celebrating the extraordinary loan of this important early masterpiece by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610) from the Galleria Borghese in Rome. On view from January 16 through April 19, 2026, the exhibition showcases what can be considered Caravaggio’s first masterpiece alongside a group of ten works that place the painting in context, from the artist’s influences to those he influenced.

Trained in his native Lombardy, Caravaggio brought to Rome a tradition of naturalism that stretched back to Leonardo da Vinci’s work in Milan. He combined this tradition with a revolutionary approach to painting that shattered the illusion of art and celebrated the artifice of the studio. Boy with a Basket of Fruit (ca. 1595), in which these key elements of Caravaggio’s art come together for the first time, marks the beginning of a revolution in Italian painting.”— The Morgan Library & Museum

Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi). Boy with a Basket of Fruit, ca. 1595. Oil on canvas © Galleria Borghese / Photography by Mauro Coen.
Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680). Portrait of Cardinal Scipione Borghese, ca. 1632. Red chalk over graphite. The Morgan Library & Museum, IV, 176. Photography by Steven H. Crossot.
Attributed to Marco d’Oggiono (ca. 1467–1524). Girl with Cherries,
ca. 1491–95. Oil on panel. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Marquand Collection, Gift of Henry G. Marquand, 1890, 91.26.5.
Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527–1593). Four Seasons in One Head,
ca. 1590. Oil on panel. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington, Paul Mellon Fund.
Rutilio Manetti (1571–1639). A Life Study: A Monk Sleeping Against a Pile of Books, ca. 1616.
Red chalk. The Morgan Library & Museum, 2019.102. Photography by Janny Chiu.
Bartolomeo Cavarozzi (1587–1625). Basket of Fruit, ca. 1620. Oil on canvas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bequest of Errol M. Rudman, 2020, 2020.263.5.

“Caravaggio captures the imagination in a way that almost no other artist can,” said Colin B. Bailey, Katharine J. Rayner Director of the Morgan Library & Museum. “We are exceptionally fortunate to be able to bring this masterpiece from the Galleria Borghese to share with visitors in New York for the first time in the twenty-first century, accompanied by works that illuminate his impact on the field of painting.”

“Boy with a Basket of Fruit marks a turning point in Italian painting,” said John Marciari, Charles W. Engelhard Curator, Department Head of Drawings and Prints, and Director of Curatorial Affairs. “It is a linchpin between the naturalism of Caravaggio’s sources and his radical interventions in exposing the artifice of painting. To see this painting in context is to understand the revolution it represents.”

Caravaggio’s“Boy with a Basket of Fruit” in Focus is curated by John Marciari, Charles W. Engelhard Curator, Department Head of Drawings and Prints, and Director of Curatorial Affairs. It is organized by the Morgan Library & Museum in collaboration with the Foundation for Italian Art & Culture (FIAC).

Images courtesy The Morgan Library & Museum.