Le Vase bleu

Le Vase bleu (c.1890) at the Musée d'Orsay is among the most celebrated of Cézanne's floral still lifes, distinguished by the intense deep blue of the ceramic vase — one of the strongest single color statements in his entire oeuvre. The blue vase provides an anchor of cool chromatic intensity around which the warmer flower colors are organized, and the relationship between the vase's geometric cylindrical form and the organic irregularity of the blooms above creates the same kind of formal dialogue Cézanne explored between apples and cloths in his fruit still lifes. By 1890 the Orsay's collection context would place this alongside the Impression, Sunrise and the major Impressionist works, allowing the contrast between Monet's atmospheric luminism and Cézanne's structural analysis to be experienced directly. The vase itself may be identified from comparative study with Cézanne's other still lifes as a specific ceramic object that appears in multiple compositions — part of the small collection of studio objects he used repeatedly as structural reference points.

The dense blue of the vase is constructed from layered strokes of cerulean, ultramarine, and grey-blue applied wet-on-dry to build depth without transparent glazing. The flowers are broadly suggested with rapid dabs of pink, white, and yellow that read as distinct blooms only at a distance, dissolving into brushwork at close range.