Buffet was the miracle child of the post-war art world of Paris, bursting on the scene with his first one-man show held at the Librairie des Impressions d'Art in December 1947. This painting, created the following year, received the Prix de la Critique and was praised by many critics. At the time, Buffet was just 20 years old. The extremely limited palette, just ash tones and browns, combine with sharp black lines in an expressive form that rejects idealization. Buffet's symbolic depictions of the psychological state of post-war society, filled with unease and volatility, were overwhelmingly well-received. In that year, 1948, Buffet created this work and numerous other examples of still lifes with the same motifs. And yet, the dried herrings and coffee mill shown here, or the plucked chickens and skinned rabbits seen in other works, all stimulate the sensual pleasure of the sense of taste. The poverty ridden, brutally simple table setting is supported by a sense of nothingness, of misery. However, these works, with their direct expression of the bleak post-war world, had a sense of actuality for the viewers of their day. Conversely, as the years passed, his expression lost its impact and became more stylized, more conventional. (Source: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2009, cat. no.121)