Helene Schjerfbeck
Lemons in a Wooden Bowl

In Lemons in a Wooden Bowl (1934–1944), Helene Schjerfbeck (1862–1946) has captured a still life with sun-yellow fruit. The painting took the artist nearly ten years to make, from starting in 1934 to its completion in 1944. It represents Schjerfbeck’s ambition to convey her subjects using stylised colour planes, which is typical of her later still lifes. The lemons are rendered using two-dimensional yellow colour planes that merge into each other and stand out thanks to contrasting green, brown and blue fields.