Pepper and Lemon on a White Tablecloth 1901

Odilon Redon conjured Pepper and Lemon on a White Tablecloth with oil on canvas. Look at the way Redon has lovingly rendered the lemon, as though he’s known it all his life, and is inviting us to taste it. It’s the kind of yellow that makes you squint, a bit acidic, like the painting itself! Notice how the tablecloth is not just a flat, neutral surface but a textured, dimensional space of its own. It’s almost as if the cloth has a story to tell. I think about Redon and the other painters. How we all struggle to capture light, to hold onto a feeling. We are all in conversation with each other. We try and fail, but we keep going, inspired by the work of those who came before us. We work and rework, until something new emerges, something that surprises us. Something that we can share.