This painting leaves the spectator much to guess, since it might be a romantic date cancelled; or, as the apples hint at Adam & Eve, two lovers just parted, or who are unable to meet.

Chris Gollon was a pioneering painter in so many ways, and equally in the genre of still life. A great painter of human relationships, even in still life he was able to allude to a human drama or situation, which art historian Tamsin Pickeral describes well in her book on Chris Gollon's life and work 'Humanity in Art', endorsed by Bill Bryson OBE.

It was in 2012 that his pioneering techniques in acrylic painting came to the attention of Liquitex, the leading manufacturer of fine art acrylic paints. Bacon and Hockney had been criticised for flatness in acrylic, yet Chris Gollon managed to avoid this by combining Old Master techniques of very thin glazes, with printmaking techniques and–as in this painting–fine art spray paints, which Liquitex kindly began to supply him free of charge. Making the shadows deliberately wrong he also manages to animate the objects and infuse them curiously with a human drama unfolding.

Yet there is nonetheless everything here in this painting for a joyous moment, and Chris Gollon liked the check tablecloths offered in European bistros, their bold reds giving an uplifting atmosphere. Painted in his 60th year, when the artist in selected works on paper, changed his habitual signature into a distant moon.

This painting is in the artist's estate, please contact us for more details or click Enquire.