Bowl of Fruit and Tankard before a Window
- Artist: Paul Gauguin
- Date: probably 1890
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Museum: The National Gallery
- Collection record: The National Gallery website
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About this artwork
This is the "Bowl of Fruit and Tankard before a Window" by Paul Gauguin. Painted in the late 19th century, this still life is a homage to Cezanne's Still Life with Fruit Dish. You can see many similarities between the two paintings, from the fruit and pottery to the rumpled tablecloth and the angled knife at the lower right.
Gauguin was heavily influenced by Cezanne's work, which was emerging as a leading force in French avant-garde art at the time. He may have felt that Cezanne's style, with its truncated diagonal brushstrokes and flattened perspective, pointed the way towards an art with more rigour.
The tankard on the table is particularly interesting. It looks like it could be a local Breton drinking vessel, which fits in with Gauguin's search for a more 'primitive' way of life during his time in Brittany.
But what really catches the eye is the narrow strip at the top of the painting - a dense arrangement of buildings that doesn't quite fit in with the rest of the scene. It looks like it could be a cityscape, but we're not sure where this view is meant to represent.
See it in person
Bowl of Fruit and Tankard before a Window hangs in The National Gallery on Trafalgar Square, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
