About: The Breakfast Table (Brack)

The Breakfast Table is a 1958 still life painting by Australian artist John Brack. The painting depicts a table after breakfast but before the plates, cups and cutlery have been cleared. Breakfast has finished and the participants have gone, although the detective-like artist has set out visual clues that tell us about the people who were here. To begin with Brack himself, his painter-wife, and their four daughters are signified by a glass, a tea cup and four mugs. Of course, all these vessels are empty, much like the egg shell in its cup, and the five plates dotted with a few crumbs left from toast. Even bottles are drained of liquids. Not a scrap of food remains. No crusts, no dabs of butter, no unconsumed dregs of milk.