Medici Fruit Painting, Wikimedia Commons (Williem van Aeist).

Sour cherries have been referenced throughout history, usually in conjunction with writings and art. For example, the French horticulturalist Henry Louise Duhamel Du Monceau (1700-1782), described the sour cherry in his multi-volume work “Traité des Arbes” in the section “Cerise de Fruitiers Montmorency”. Duhamel described the Montmorency, a kind of sour cherry tree, as the first widely grown cherry tree in Europe. Dumamel also claimed that the Montmorency cherry tree originated in the Montmorency valley of France before the seventeenth century.

In relation to art, sour cherries have been historically depicted through paintings. For example, in 1817 the famed botanical painter Giorgio Gallesio painted sour cherries as part of fruit painting commissioned by the Medici family in Italy, indicating the presence and importance of the sour cherry in Italy.