Still Life: Red Goblet, August 1952

This early still life shows Snow experimenting with flattening compositional space so that all objects exist in the foreground. Consequently, the hierarchy of forms is largely defined by colour. The viewer’s eye is first drawn to the deep red goblet, which is connected by parallel lines to the orange and blue bottles to the left. The tip of the blue bottle meets the edge of the round table, whose four legs are splayed and cut off by the edges of the canvas. The linear markings throughout the work make visible the complex and cohesive structure of the composition. This early work anticipates Snow’s greater focus on the subject of tables and chairs four years later.