Still Life with Fruit 1917

Cuno Amiet made this *Still Life with Fruit* with paint that seems to have been applied wet on wet, with the white of the paper showing through. He knew exactly what he was doing, even though the brushstrokes are loose. Look at how the background’s made of these quick vertical blue marks. It gives a sense of space without being too fussy, and it totally sets off the blues in the fruit bowl. The colour isn't just descriptive; it’s like the whole painting is breathing blue. There's a really juicy red and yellow dabbed amongst it all. Those spots keep your eye dancing around. It's as if he built the whole thing up from simple gestures, from the ground up. Amiet reminds me of Bonnard, because he wasn’t trying to capture reality so much as the feeling of being in a space with light and colour, a moment. And that's why it stays fresh, no matter how many times you look at it.