Still Life with a Bowl of Fruit, Bottle, Cup and Glass 1929

This still life by Samuel Peploe is an arrangement of blocky forms in muted greens, browns, and whites, like he's building a world from simple shapes and colors. I can almost feel Peploe standing before his table, squinting, trying to capture the essence of those ordinary objects. It's like he's not just painting what he sees, but what he feels, maybe even what he tastes. Look how the brushstrokes build up, layer upon layer, especially in the bottle. You can see the physicality of the paint, its texture, and how that adds to the overall experience. That quick dab of white, right there, does that capture the glint of light on the glass? Peploe’s simplified forms remind me of Cezanne, who was always trying to get at the underlying structure of things. It’s all one big conversation really, with artists borrowing, responding, and pushing each other forward across time. Painting is not about answers, but about the ongoing exchange of ideas, an invitation to see the world in new and unexpected ways.