Dish of Apples

"Dish of Apples" is a foundational Still Life painting created by Paul Cézanne between 1876 and 1877. This key work, executed in oil on canvas, marks an important transitional phase in Cézanne's development, moving away from the purely Impressionistic approach toward a more structured, analytical style that redefined painting for the modern era.

Cézanne revolutionized the genre of the still life by treating domestic objects not just as fleeting representations but as architectural forms. In this painting, the simple subject matter of apples resting in a dish becomes a rigorous exercise in volume and planar construction. Notice how the contours of the fruit and the surrounding drapery are simplified, and the background is flattened, anticipating the fragmented geometries that would define Cubism decades later. Cézanne often employed multiple vantage points within a single canvas, creating tension and stability simultaneously, a technique clearly visible in Dish of Apples where the table appears both solid and slightly precarious.

The work's rich and earthy palette features careful, diagonal brushstrokes that build up the texture and density of the forms. This method, along with the artist's focus on essential structure over decorative detail, solidified Cézanne’s reputation as a pivotal figure in Post-Impressionism. This canonical example of his analytical approach to form resides within the esteemed collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The popularity of the piece ensures that high-quality prints and reproductions remain widely accessible for art study, benefiting from works by the artist from this era increasingly entering the public domain.