In ‘Still Life – Fish on a Pedestal Table’ MacBryde makes a highly idiosyncratic choice of still life objects – a pair of kippers and what appears to be some sort of heraldic shield or lid. MacBryde seems not to have made preliminary drawings for his paintings and instead changed them constantly as he worked. In this work, various changes and over-painted areas are clearly visible. The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art opened in 1960: this was the first painting by MacBryde to enter the collection, just a few months before his death.