Still Life, Pears and Grapes 1930

In Samuel Peploe’s "Still Life, Pears and Grapes" the loaded brushstrokes create a sense of immediacy and the colours are carefully chosen to offer subtle variations of light. Imagine Peploe standing before his subject, the weighty pears and plump grapes arranged just so. Maybe he was thinking about Cezanne and the way he rendered volume with colour. There’s an almost sculptural quality to the forms here, built up with thick impasto. I find myself drawn to the way he handles the white tablecloth, it is not just a backdrop but an active participant in the composition. It's like he's wrestling with the paint, trying to capture the way the light dances across its surface. Painters are always in dialogue, riffing off each other’s ideas across time. It's about this embodied expression, embracing all the ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple readings.