Still Life. Fruit 1931

Samuel Peploe made this still life painting with oil paints, and what grabs me is the directness, like he’s right there in front of it all, just knocking it out. The texture in this piece, it's all about the brushstrokes, you know? Short, choppy marks that build up the forms. Look at the way the light hits those apples, how he suggests the roundness with just a few swipes of color. There’s a roughness to it, an honesty, that I really dig. It's like he’s saying, "Here it is, plain and simple." That pear in the center, casting a dark shadow, feels like the key to the whole composition. The way Peploe uses these dark areas to offset the lighter tones reminds me of Cezanne. It’s like seeing the world not as it is, but as we feel it.