Still Life in Interior

Preston Dickinson studied in Paris between 1911 and 1914, and, influenced by avant-garde movements, began experimenting with form and color in his own work. In Still Life in Interior, he depicted a variety of everyday items, including magazines, a sake bottle, a tea canister painted with Japanese figures, and a cup and saucer, adopting an exaggerated perspective from above to create the perception of overlapping, flattened shapes in space. He was also careful to use complementary colors, particularly yellow and blue, which create a sense of rhythmic movement through the composition. Dickinson achieved great critical success in the 1920s with works like this one, but died of pneumonia at the age of 41.