Still Life with Orange was painted during Bernard’s Cloisonnist, or Synthetist, period and exhibits all of the hallmarks of that style. The composition is flattened, the colors are intense and pulsating, and the contours of the still-life elements have been gouged out to create distinct borders between the fields of color. It shows a bold departure from the broken brushwork and dissolving forms of Impressionism. Influenced by Japanese prints, Synthetism resulted from a conscious effort to work less from nature and more from memory.
