Still Life with Flowers in a Jug

Bernard had been away from France for roughly ten years before he set flowers on a table again. From 1893 he lived in Egypt, mostly in Cairo, where he married and painted Egyptian streets and figures. He came home in 1904, by way of Venice. A jug of flowers with a little fruit beside it is about the plainest subject a painter can give himself, and the French title this one carries, Fleurs en pot et fruits, promises nothing more than that. The year is not quite settled: 1904 is the usual date, though some records place the canvas nearer 1912.