Jean Metzinger was a member of the so-called Puteaux Group of artists, who were disciples of Cubism centered around the brothers Duchamp-Villon. He was also a theoretician and, with his close friend Albert Gleizes, co-authored the book Du Cubisme, published in 1912. Throughout his career, Metzinger liked to create variations on the same theme. During the years 1916–19, still life constituted one such major theme. This work depicts an arrangement of objects—a vase with flowers, a glass and an absinthe spoon, the journal L'Heure, and a playing card—placed on a table next to a window in the artist's studio in Meudon near Paris.

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