@pomological noticing how much more edible the red delicious apples in this painting look than their modern cousins i ended up reading up a bit on the history of the variety. somewhat unusually for apples it seems that the trade name red delicious has been used for over 300 cultivars!

so now i am curious as to 1) whether the original “hawkeye” delicious (described as “a round, blushed yellow fruit of surpassing sweetness”) still exists at all and 2) which of the many varieties of delicious branded apple varieties this is — it is perhaps too red to be the original?