Emile Bernard French, 1868-1941

This work is one of a few rare early still-lifes that Bernard executed upon his return from Brittany. The palette of ochre and red emphasizes the decorative pattern of the table and the background, which is rendered in the same colors. The artist placed the flowers and the orange as if they merged with the motif.

The flowers are rendered with thick impasto, and the orange is outlined with blue contours to highlight the volume and texture of the fruit. The background creates a liminal space, detaching the objects from a specific location and giving them an abstract character.

The orange reappeared in other still-lifes from 1887, such as "Nature morte à l’orange" (1887), now at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. The fruit served as the perfect object for continuing Bernard's research on volume and decorative patterns. The composition is also reminiscent of "Vase de Fleurs et tasse," with two objects displayed on a table, now at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.