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Candy Counter

Wayne Thiebaud’s 1962 Candy Counter was painted in oil on canvas. The palette is muted, with a few bright pops of color. The counter and walls behind it are textured by long, horizontal paint brush bristle lines. The paint is so thick, and the skinny lines so prominent, that one could be forgiven for mistaking the artwork for a frosted sheet cake decorated with sculpted fondant. At six feet wide and just under five feet tall, the painting depicts a gray-brown bakery case. On the left side of the gleaming white top is a stand with nine bright, patterned lollipops. On the right side, a mint-green analog scale. A minimal array of confections waits behind the glass below them. Only a portion of the case is in view. The left side is cut off by the left border of the canvas. While the case has a realistic perspective, it is hard to locate in space. It could be far from the pale blue-green wall behind it or close. This flattening of space also contributes to the feeling that the painting itself might be a cake.

The scene is brightly lit. Walls are washed out, and objects’ shadows are extremely dark. Many items appear to vibrate as if caught in the flickering glow of fluorescent lights. Thiebaud achieved this by pulling the brush to trace an outline of the group of lollipops, the scale, and a half-dozen candied apples in the case with sticks poking up out of them. These outlines curve around the objects, in contrast to the rest of the painting with its horizontal bristle lines.

Here are the desserts: The nine lollipops include a couple with orange and white spirals, four with alternating red and white triangles like peppermint candies, and others with lines or circles. Below them, a small tray in the case lined with off-white parchment paper is nearly empty, save for seven round little goodies at the back in red, white, and green, each with a dot on top like a jelly bean. To the right of this is a longer sheet with three types of treats in their own zones: half of a two-layer pink cake with white frosting in the middle, the six candied apples at the center back, and in the front right corner of the tray, a pile of pink and orange strips like dried fruit. At the right side of the case and under the scale is a mint-green cake frosted with ultra-thick paint with peaks like meringue. In front of the cake are three small cubes, maybe sliced from it.

The front of the candy counter is very shiny, and the bristle lines make it look like rough wood grain. The way paint evokes the display case’s glass, though, is subtle: The pale blue-green wall is ever-so-slightly bluer behind the case than it is elsewhere. But since there is no sliding door at the back for staff to retrieve anything, the work creates a feeling that customers at this shop are invited to reach in and choose their own delicacy.