Image: public domain, courtesy of The Art Institute of Chicago
The Basket of Apples
A wine bottle, a tipped basket of apples and a plate of cookies share a table with a crumpled cloth. Look closer: the bottle leans, the edges of the table don't line up, and the apples seem ready to roll away.
🎧 Audio guide available in the 3D museum
Did you know?
- The cookies look as if seen from the side and from above at the same time, as though Cézanne looked from two viewpoints.
- Cézanne combined several viewpoints on purpose, instead of the single fixed viewpoint used by painters since the Renaissance.
- Thick brushstrokes shape the round apples and the heavy folds of the tablecloth.
- Look at the lower left corner: the painting is signed "P. Cézanne".
- In 1895 the art dealer Ambroise Vollard gave Cézanne his first solo exhibition in Paris, with about 150 works.
- Later artists such as Picasso and Matisse learned from Cézanne, and his work is seen as a forerunner of Cubism.
About the artist
Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) was born in Aix-en-Provence in southern France and divided his working life between Paris and his beloved Provence.
Often called the father of modern art, he is famous for still lifes of apples, The Card Players and many views of Mont Sainte-Victoire.
As a schoolboy in Aix he became best friends with the future writer Émile Zola, and he once declared that he wanted to astonish Paris with an apple.
More works
The Card PlayersPaul Cézanne, 1890–92
The BedroomVincent van Gogh, 1889
A Sunday on La Grande JatteGeorges Seurat, 1884–86
At the Moulin RougeHenri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1892–95
Fishing in Spring, the Pont de Clichy (Asnières)Vincent van Gogh, 1887
Self-PortraitVincent van Gogh, 1889
RosesVincent van Gogh, 1890
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