Melon and Fruit

Derain believed that small touches of pure white, a device of the old Dutch painters, were what made a painted object seem alive. On this canvas from 1927 they are laid on so lightly that they are easy to miss, a glint on the grapes, a catch of light on a peach. The whole picture is warm orange and yellow. A melon sits beside a dish of peaches with dark and pale grapes, on a white cloth, and a loose garland of vine leaves runs across in two diagonals that break up the flat lines of the table. For a painter whose objects are usually firmly outlined, the edges here are unusually soft and the paint thin and fluid. Only the cloth and a few single berries keep a clear contour.