Roger de la Fresnaye

John Quinn, New York (by 1926)
Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York
Jerome H. Stone Collection, Illinois (acquired from the above in 1952)

J.Quinn, F. Watson & B. Rogers, The John Quinn (1870-1925) Collection of Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings & Sculpture, Huntington, 1926, p. 55 (illustrated, titled Still life)
G. Seligman, Roger de la Fresnaye, Neuchâtel, 1969, p. 130 (incorrect dimensions)

There is a larger, unsigned but almost identical version of the present work in the collection of the Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris. In his discussion of the important similarities between the two, Germain Seligman notes that these compositions are remarkable for the dramatic incline of the table which permits the artist to clearly delineate the position of the objects on the surface and to emphasise their silhouettes. He adds that the angle formed by the corner of the table and the knife simultaneously recalls a more traditional vision of the subject while heralding the more angular compositions of 1913-14 (cf. G. Seligman, op. cit., p. 130).

Roger de la Fresnaye was profoundly influenced by the work of Paul Cézanne, and in particular Cézanne's belief that the artist should "treat nature by means of the cylinder, the sphere, the cone, everything brought into proper perspective so that each side of an object or a plane is directed towards a central point. Lines parallel to the horizon give breadth... lines perpendicular to this horizon give depth. But nature for us men is more depth than surface, whence the need to introduce into our light vibrations, represented by the reds and yellows, a sufficient amount of blueness to give the feel of air" (quoted in ibid., pp. 276-77).