Nature morte au chandelier 1937

This is a still life of a candlestick, a book and some flowers made by Pablo Picasso using oil paint, although we don't know exactly when. Picasso's painting has a cool, almost icy feel despite the warm colours. The paint handling is pretty straightforward, not too thick, not too thin, but it feels really present and physical. You can see the marks he made, like the little zigzags of green on the walls which add to the overall feeling of controlled chaos. Check out the flames on the candle, those confident strokes of yellow and white give it a real sense of movement and light. The colours in the piece are unexpected, yet they totally work, like the lavender shadow beneath the table. It’s Picasso's way of messing with our expectations and creating something new. He reminds me a little of Phillip Guston here, perhaps because the composition and the handling of paint are so direct. Ultimately, it is the ambiguous quality that makes this piece so enduringly interesting.