Objects on a Table

Painted in France, where Bruce lived from 1904 to 1936, this still life depicts cut fruit, a glass with a straw, blocklike shapes, and an architectural column with clean lines, geometric clarity, and cool tonalities. The painting exudes a rational stillness, especially when compared to Cubist still lifes by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. In fact, Objects on a Table marks a deliberate and profound departure from Cubism, which gained negative associations during World War I because its fragmentation of form appeared to visualize the conflict’s deadly destruction.