This still life featured in the annual exhibition of the Royal Queensland Art Society in 1935 and is Vida Lahey’s ‘manifesto’ on Modernism in Queensland. The subject matter refers to a debate about traditional and modern art in a series of letters submitted by Lahey to the Courier-Mail between March and May 1933. Here, Lahey simultaneously registers the primacy of nature, acknowledges classical tradition and recognises Modernism. The eye immediately focuses on the intense orange flowers before exploring the quieter tones of the book, the draped tablecloth and the classically-inspired relief by the artist’s friend and sculptor Daphne Mayo.