Fan, Salt Box, Melon, 1909
Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881 - 1973)

In the fall of 1909, after a summer in Spain, Pablo Picasso painted two or three still lifes with a dark green fan on a round table. This painting shows the fan opened and propped against the wall, so it begins to lose its identity as a feminine accessory and becomes a series of faceted, geometric planes in space. A sliced melon in a crystal bowl, a salt box, and a rumpled cloth also rest on the table. The back of the table is tilted upward, so it echoes the flat picture surface. Picasso selected a group of neutral objects so that he could concentrate on analyzing form and compressing space in this masterpiece of early cubist painting.