Plate of Fruit on a Chair

Plate of Fruit on a Chair from 1879, at the Barnes Foundation, introduces the unusual compositional device of placing the still life arrangement on a chair rather than a conventional table — a choice that raises the objects to a different level and disrupts the normal hierarchy of vertical surface and horizontal support. Barnes's collection includes many works that illustrate Cézanne's formal experiments, and this piece's unusual staging demonstrates the inventiveness within his apparently conservative genre work. The chair back creates a rectangular frame behind the plate of fruit, introducing a geometric element into the composition.

The chair as a staging device creates an unconventional perspective — the fruit plate at a different elevation than Cézanne's typical table arrangements, the chair rungs and back providing geometric framing elements. The composition is unusually vertical compared to his most characteristic horizontal arrangements.