Still Life with Apples and Porcelain Jug

The monogram in the lower right corner reads HMP, for Hermann Max Pechstein, with the year 1912. That spring he broke with Die Brücke, the Expressionist group he had belonged to since 1906. Its members had agreed to exhibit only together. Pechstein showed on his own at the Berlin Secession instead, and in May the others threw him out. The canvas keeps the group's way of painting. The cloth, the wall and the long bowl are all yellow and ochre, which is why the picture is also called Still Life in Yellow. Heavy dark lines hold each apple and banana in place, and the porcelain jug is painted in a cool bluish white against all that warmth. A band of green shows beneath the cloth at the bottom edge. The Austrian Gallery, today's Belvedere, bought the painting in 1949.