This work is part of a whole series of similar still lifes painted by Roger Raveel between 1948 and 1952 that feature tables. In them Raveel is looking for a contemporary way of seeing: with bright, colourful planes and shapes, Raveel reduces things to their essence. One can notice a certain degree of influence from Henri Matisse’s work, which he studied closely as a young painter. Raveel set out to distance himself from the dark and compact Flemish expressionism that dominated painting until World War II.