oil on canvas, 94×138 cm
Signed and dated lower right 15 U. Conti
In 1915 Conti made a series of paintings in which the human figure was added to the Cézannian setting of still life on large white tablecloths, with a deliberate reference to seventeenth-century painting. This Fruiter is one of the best examples of the period, both for the freshness with which the figure is treated, which suggests a jet process, and for the presentation of the image without any mediation. The popular choice of theme and the freedom of the strokes reveal more than anything else the author’s temperament and come close to the evidence of his later years in terms of the gestural tracing of the brushstroke, oriented by a careful study of Van Gogh, but applied to a broader composition.
