Still life with plant, lemon and orange 1906

Paula Modersohn-Becker made this still life with plant, lemon and orange at the turn of the century, using oil on canvas. The colour palette here is earthy but bold, and there's a real sense of the artist working through something, trying to find a new way of seeing. Look at the way the paint is applied – thick, almost sculptural in places. You can practically feel the weight of the pigment on the canvas. Then there is the way she builds up the forms with these blocky strokes, simplifying the shapes of the fruit and the pot. It's like she's not just painting what she sees, but also what she knows is there, underneath the surface. I'm drawn to the little bunch of purple flowers in the white vase; the splash of vibrant colour really pops against the more muted tones of the rest of the painting. Modersohn-Becker’s interest in simple, everyday objects reminds me of Morandi, though her expressive brushwork feels much more modern. This is about the energy of painting, more than the objects themselves.