Gauguin painted this still life in Pont Aven, in northwestern France, where he spent several months in 1894 recovering from injuries sustained in a fight. Its tasseled mantelpiece trim and bright citrus punctuate the otherwise pale palette, characteristic of the artist’s output from 1893 to 1895, when he returned to France from lush and verdant Tahiti. Gauguin gave the picture to his friend, the painter Gustave Loiseau, who visited him faithfully throughout his convalescence.
