Jacques Linard builds the composition around a precious Chinese kraak porcelain bowl - its name derived from the Portuguese carracks that brought such wares to Europe - filled with apricots and encircled by leaves that barely emerge from the dark background. A rare and highly prized object in early seventeenth-century Europe, the Ming bowl evokes the contemporary fascination with exotic curiosities. Yet Linard avoids any sense of display: everything is concentrated within a few elements, observed with extraordinary intensity.

Each fruit seems to possess an individuality of its own: blemishes, blushes and minute imperfections are recorded with an almost scientific precision. A fly has just settled on a halved apricot, disturbing the stillness of the composition; nearby, a ray of light catches the leaves and briefly illuminates the opalescent surface of the porcelain.

It is in this balance between order and the faint pulse of life that Linard's most personal poetry emerges. The light of a fading day caresses fruit and porcelain, transforming the simple observation of things into a meditation on their beauty and fragility. Dating from around 1630-31, the painting belongs to a moment when Linard had reached the full maturity of his art.