Even as he used techniques and themes lifted from the everyday world of mass-market advertising, Lichtenstein also referred frequently to the history of fine art in his work. Landscapes, portraits, and still lifes, for example, have been subjects of art since time immemorial; Lichtenstein returned to these subjects again and again.

In this work, the artist references the tradition of still life—a type of painting that shows everyday objects loaded with symbolic meaning. Typical still life subjects appear here: a fruit bowl, a cup and saucer, and a tabletop, all rendered in Lichtenstein’s flat, comic book style. The artist also includes a mirror (on the left) and a painting turned away from the viewer (on the right), both objects we often ponder for extended reflection and deeper meaning. Yet here, like his Pop art contemporaries, Lichtenstein jumbles “high art” and “pop culture,” frustrating our normal ways of seeing and asking us to look again at the world around us.