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"Still Life with Red Vase" belongs to a series of still lifes in which Maurer drew inspiration from Paul Cézanne, particularly his use of color and rejection of traditional illusionistic space. Rather than creating the illusion of a deep, continuous space, Maurer compresses the objects against the picture surface, allowing color and shape to become as important as the objects themselves. Created just before his fully developed Cubist period (1928–32), the work reflects his experimentation with flattened, simplified forms while retaining the rich, expressive palette associated with Fauvism. The bold red vase serves as a visual anchor, while the surrounding objects overlap and shift in scale, creating a sense of instability that challenges traditional perspective. Although increasingly abstract, Maurer’s work remained grounded in observation. He frequently chose familiar objects from his studio—fruit, pitchers, ceramic bowls, and decorative objects—as the starting points for his compositions, transforming these everyday subjects through color, shape, and spatial experimentation.