Artwork Information

When the still life regained favour as a subject at the turn of the 20th century, it was for its formal properties rather than its symbolism. The genre allowed artists like Cézanne to explore the limits of painting within a tightly defined structure.

While McCahon uses a simplified visual language which follows the tradition of Cézanne, his still life objects are imbued with meaning and allusion in ways that are more in touch with the symbolic concerns of the 17th and 18th centuries. (McCahon's Visible Mysteries, 2004)