M. François-Aubert, Roses and Cherries on a Garden Table, Signed Oil on Canvas, Early 20th Century, Wide Gilt Frame

The table is not white. Look at the cloth in the lower right and it is green, the same green as the hedge behind, reflected up into the folds.

Oil on canvas, unlined, 21 1/2 x 18 inches (55 x 46 cm), 27 1/4 x 23 3/4 inches (69 x 60 cm) framed. Signed M. FRANÇOIS-AUBERT in capitals lower right. French, early twentieth century, in a wide gilt frame.

Roses stand in a plain glass jar on a round table set out of doors, pink, cream and one full yellow head at the centre, against a dense hedge worked in a dozen greens. A shallow dish of cherries sits on the cloth in front with their stalks and leaves still attached, two spilled beside it. The paint is thick in the flowers, each petal a separate loaded stroke, and thinner in the hedge, which is scrubbed in and left. The glass of the jar is given in three touches, a vertical highlight, a grey edge and the stems seen through it.

The canvas is unlined on its original stretcher, the paint layer stable and free of losses, with a fine age craquelure in the thickly painted areas of the cloth. The tacking margin has come loose along the lower edge and the stretcher has no keys.