Apples and Lemons on a Cloth (Pommes et citrons sur une nappe)

Apples and Lemons on a Cloth, 1910, belongs to the concentrated Barnes Foundation group of fruit-on-cloth still lifes that Renoir produced in his late Cagnes years. The cloth—white or linen-coloured—beneath the fruit was a traditional still-life device providing a neutral textured ground for the fruit colours to play against, while its folds and drape added compositional complexity. The apple-and-lemon combination placed warm red-green against cool yellow, a near-complementary colour pairing that Renoir found productive across multiple canvases.

The white or cream cloth beneath the fruit provides a reflective ground that Renoir renders with loose, shadow-blue strokes in the folds. The fruit above—apples and lemons—are modelled with his characteristic soft, rounded brushwork, with the cloth's cooler tones making the warm fruit colours advance.