Still life with Cherub in plaster

Still Life with Cherub in Plaster from 1895, at the Courtauld Gallery in London, is one of Cézanne's most unusual and self-reflexive works, incorporating a plaster cast of a Cupid or Eros — a studio prop — alongside fruit and what appears to be a canvas showing another painting. The plaster figure introduces a three-dimensional sculptural object into the still life, creating a meta-artistic reflection on representation: a painted simulacrum of a sculpted body sitting beside painted fruit. The Courtauld's collection, assembled by Samuel Courtauld who had a specific passion for Cézanne, holds several major works that make London an essential location for understanding his achievement.

The white plaster figure creates a sculptural presence very different from the rounded, colored forms of the fruit — its paleness requiring a different chromatic response from Cézanne than the warm apples and oranges. The painted canvas in the background introduces a third level of representation: a painting within a painting.