The Plate of Apples
Paul Cézanne·1877
Historical Context
The Plate of Apples from 1877, at the Art Institute of Chicago, was painted in the early years of Cézanne's transition from an Impressionist loose brushwork to the more structural, geological method of his maturity. The plate as a compositional element introduces a circular, flat object among the rounded volumes of the apples, creating the kind of formal counterpoint between different geometric types that interested him throughout his still-life career. The Art Institute holds an exceptional collection of Cézanne, including major works acquired through the enthusiasm of early twentieth-century American collectors who recognized his importance.
Technical Analysis
The white plate creates a central, neutral area around which the colored apples are arranged — its flatness contrasting with their roundness. The palette knife passages visible in some Cézanne works from this period give way here to his characteristic small, directional strokes.
Look Closer
- ◆The plate is rendered as a pure ellipse seen slightly from above — its circular form compressed by perspective into an oval that Cézanne treats as a formal motif.
- ◆Apples on and around the plate are placed at slightly different distances — the near ones larger, the far ones smaller — a simple but precise spatial calibration.
- ◆The tablecloth wrinkles at the plate's edge — Cézanne specifically records how fabric behaves around a heavy object, the cloth's response to the plate's weight.
- ◆The background is deliberately minimal — just enough colour variation to distinguish it from the tabletop — all emphasis on the still-life arrangement.
- ◆The brushwork in the apples' skin uses small adjacent colour strokes that together create the local colour — not mixed paint but juxtaposed touches that mix on the eye.
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