In this picture, returning to a device he first learnt from Japanese prints in the 1880s, Bonnard uses a checkered table-cloth to give the impression of two dimensional space. "The ambiguity of spatial handling increases the design potential of his compositions which is also notable for the way in which the painter used a range of colour to heighten his decorative patterning. The range of reds - from the density of colour in the fruit in the plate, to the subtly modulated pattern of the red squares on the cloth itself - creates a design." (Bonnard, Exhibitin Catalogue, Tokyo, Nara, Yokohama and Fukuoka, 1991, p. 157.)

Bonnard's attraction to the decorative potential of red checkered table-cloths goes back to his Nabi period which was to influence other contemporary artists, particularly Vieira da Silva.

Writing about the still-lifes, Charles Sterling says, "The sun penetrates these pictures of fruit and seems to melt them, leaving only the coloured essence of their surroundings, since Bonnard's style comes close to that of Chardin's ..." (S. M. Newman (Ed.) Bonnard, The Late Paintings, London, 1984, p. 210.)