Artwork
The Basket of Apples
The Basket of Apples is an oil painting by the Impressionist artist Paul Cézanne. It dates from 1893 and is held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.
- Accession no.
- 111436
- Credit line
- Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection
About this work
Overview
Paul Cézanne’s oil on canvas titled The Basket of Apples presents a still-life arrangement that disrupts conventional perspective. A table set with a basket of apples, a leaning wine bottle, and a stack of thin biscuits appears on a slightly askew surface, creating a sense of tension between the objects and the plane they occupy.
Subject & Meaning
The composition centers on everyday items, a fruit basket, a bottle, and pastries, yet their placement is deliberately off‑balance. The apples seem poised to tumble, the bottle tilts, and the biscuits stop just before toppling, suggesting a controlled instability that invites viewers to contemplate the relationship between form and space.
Technique & Style
Cézanne employs varied brushwork, from dense, sculptural strokes that give volume to the fruit and cloth, to looser, sketch‑like marks outlining the table’s edge. The shadows and angles do not align in a realistic manner; instead, the artist emphasizes geometric construction over optical fidelity, building the scene like interlocking blocks.
History & Provenance
Acquired as the first Cézanne work by the Art Institute of Chicago, the painting bears a rare signature in the lower left corner, a detail Cézanne seldom included. The presence of his mark may reflect the painting’s significance to the artist or to its early collector.
Context
Although Cézanne began with landscape subjects typical of the Impressionist circle, his still lifes, including this piece, marked a departure toward a more analytical approach. By challenging traditional nature morte conventions, he laid groundwork for later developments in modern art, influencing subsequent movements that valued structural analysis over mere representation.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Paul Cézanne ( say-ZAN, UK also siz-AN, US also say-ZAHN; French: ; Occitan: Pau Cesana; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French Post-Impressionist painter whose work introduced new modes of representation,…
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