Still life with a bottle 1914 - 1918

Zygmunt Waliszewski made this still life painting with visible brushstrokes and a simple palette. It’s like a little stage set, right? Imagine him setting up the objects: bottle, plate, and what looks like a mirror reflecting the scene. The paint is creamy and thick in places, like the white wall behind. You can sense Waliszewski building up the surface, layering color upon color. There's this lemon wedge in the lower register and the bottle in the middle ground. It’s cool how he captures the light bouncing off the glass, not realistically, but almost like a memory of light. I feel like he's thinking about Cezanne here. It is as if the artist had to work within this language of painting to make something new. It feels casual but so deliberate. It leaves you wondering. It is like a painter trying to figure something out by placing things next to each other. It’s funny how painting lets us have these conversations across time.