Still Life with Mirror 1919

Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin made this still life with oil on canvas; I can imagine him moving objects around in his studio, setting up the composition for painting. The color palette is muted, dominated by shades of green, brown, and white. There's a quietness to the scene, almost melancholy, but also the painting feels very intimate. I feel like I could reach out and touch the spoon. What I notice most is the mirror which reflects a space inside a space, or a window; it makes me wonder what the artist was thinking while painting it. How could one use a mirror to capture and refract a new reality? Petrov-Vodkin's still life makes me think about other painters like Giorgio Morandi, who also worked with a limited range of objects and colors to create meditative, philosophical images. I feel like artists are always in conversation with each other, across time and space.