Still Life with Apples and Green Glass

1906

Tempera or oil (sources differ) on paperboard mounted on plywood, 33.2 × 43 cm. Probably Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, Bremen

A small tabletop scene: apples on a patterned plate and on a red cloth, with a knife and a stemmed glass. Ordinary things are pressed into simple, weighty shapes.

Dated more closely to November or December 1906.
Look at the glass: despite the title, in this image it reads as a deep blue.
Paint is dragged on thickly, so the turquoise wall behind keeps a rough, scratched texture.
The tabletop tilts up toward the viewer and the whole apples swell into plain rounds, so the picture works through mass and color more than detail. A knife laid across the plate leads the eye toward the glass.
Its inventory number suggests it entered the museum in 1993; an older photo archive lists a private owner in Worpswede.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain