Red Peppers on round, white Table

"Red Peppers on a Round, White Table" of 1915, held at the Kunstmuseum Solothurn, is one of Vallotton's most visually striking still lifes, in which the intense red of fresh peppers against the white of the table surface creates a chromatic confrontation of maximum clarity. The wartime date places this among a group of still lifes Vallotton made while wider Europe was at war, small concentrated investigations of domestic objects carried out with the same intensity one might give to weightier subjects. The white table is a recurring element in his still-life practice — a neutral field that, unlike a patterned cloth, places the objects on an even, light-reflecting ground. The round table form creates a compositional disc within the rectangle of the canvas, a simple but effective structural decision. The red pepper was also used by Matisse in his still lifes of the same decade, though Vallotton's treatment lacks Matisse's decorative exuberance, prioritising structural clarity instead.

Oil on canvas with smooth, flat handling. The red of the peppers is painted with even, saturated colour that maximises contrast against the white surface. Individual pepper forms are described through subtle tonal modulation within the red, suggesting volume without breaking the intensity of the colour. The white table surface is kept uniformly pale with no texture or tonal variation.