The Plate of Apples
Paul Cezanne
1872–1882
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 45.8 × 54.7 cm (18 1/8 × 21 1/2 in.); Framed: 71.8 × 82.6 × 10.2 cm (28 1/4 × 32 1/2 × 4 in.)
- Genre
- oil on canvas
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago
Styles
Tags
oil paintings (visual works)paintingPost-Impressionism19th centurypaintbowlcanvasApplesoil on canvasfrenchTableoil paint (paint)painting (image making)painting techniquesstill lifeFruitoil paintingfoodeuropean painting
About
The lozenge-shaped pattern of the wallpaper identifies the setting for this still life as the Paris apartment where Paul Cezanne and his family lived between 1875 and 1879. Here, the artist disrupted expectations for painting at the time by tipping the tabletop and plate forward toward the viewer and constructing a table with edges that don’t quite align. These disorienting details are complemented by the heavy, almost sculptural forms he created by using a pointed tool—possibly the end of his brush handle—to incise contours into semi-dry paint around the plate and some of the apples.
