1919 guitare, Bouteille, coupe avec fruits et verre sur la table Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) Period of creation: 1919-1930

The composition presents a still life arranged on what appears to be a tabletop surface. A guitar dominates the central space, its form fractured and reassembled into geometric planes. The instruments strings are suggested through linear divisions, while its body is rendered in shades of blue, purple, and white, disrupting any sense of realistic representation.
To the right of the guitar sits a dark bottle, its cylindrical shape similarly deconstructed and simplified. Above these objects, a bowl containing fruit and what seems to be a glass rests on the table’s surface. The arrangement is not presented in a conventional perspective; instead, multiple viewpoints are incorporated simultaneously, creating a sense of spatial ambiguity.
The color palette is restrained, primarily utilizing blues, greens, whites, browns, and blacks. These colors are applied with visible brushstrokes, contributing to the paintings textural quality. A background wall is suggested through broad planes of green and yellow, further flattening the pictorial space.
Beyond a straightforward depiction of objects, the work seems concerned with exploring the nature of perception and representation. The fragmentation of forms suggests an attempt to dissect reality into its constituent parts, questioning the possibility of capturing it in a singular, unified image. The overlapping planes and shifting perspectives deny a fixed point of view, inviting the viewer to actively engage in reconstructing the scene.
The inclusion of everyday objects – a guitar, bottle, fruit – hints at themes of domesticity and leisure, but these are rendered with an unsettling detachment. This juxtaposition creates a sense of melancholy or quiet contemplation, as if the artist is observing these commonplace elements with a critical eye, revealing their inherent instability and fragility within a constructed reality. The crescent shape on the table’s front edge adds a subtle element of mystery, its meaning open to interpretation.