'Ghâtaignier' Apples and Glazed Earthenware on a Table

'Ghâtaignier' Apples and Glazed Earthenware on a Table at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, painted in 1872, is one of Pissarro's rare still lifes and one of the most historically resonant: Cézanne arrived in Pontoise that same year to work alongside Pissarro, and the two artists' shared interest in the apple as a still life subject in this pivotal year makes this canvas a document of the beginning of one of modern art's most consequential artistic relationships. Cézanne would go on to make the apple the central subject of his still life investigations, producing the Apples and Oranges and related canvases that became foundational to Cubism and modern painting. Pissarro's 1872 still life precedes that development and may have contributed to Cézanne's focus on the apple as a subject: here is the older painter, already at Pontoise where Cézanne was about to arrive, treating the apple with the same direct, honest observation he brought to all his subjects. The Metropolitan's holding of this early still life alongside Pissarro's landscapes allows this unusual genre departure to be read within the broader context of his career.

Pissarro renders the glazed pottery and apples with careful attention to surface and light. The glazed surfaces catch light differently from the matte apple skins, and Pissarro observes this distinction through varied paint handling. The composition is modest and frontal, avoiding theatrical arrangement in favour of honest domestic observation.