Although not the most recent painting in the National Gallery’s collection, this picture is perhaps the most self-consciously modern. It is also the Gallery’s only example of Cubism, the early twentieth-century art movement initiated by Pablo Picasso and his colleague Georges Braque, which radically transformed the visual arts, particularly through its rejection of single-point perspective that had dominated art since the Renaissance.Although the picture may seem to be entirely abstract, there are several recognisable objects. These include a table, an off-white tablecloth with grey tassels, the strings and neck of a violin, part of a newspaper (including the letters 'AL' of 'JOURNAL') and a dish of fruit. Picasso shows these objects from more than one point of view -- for example, we see the table from the side and also look down at it from above.