Apples, Bottle And Chairback

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)

The rich and extraordinarily complex harmony of deeply saturated primary colours evokes an unusual splendour and makes this highly finished large watercolour one of Cézanne’s most accomplished works on paper. Despite its simplicity, the arrangement of objects, including a plate laden with fruit on a table with a chair close by, all depicted in approximately life size, alludes to a festive dining scene. The interaction of sensuous colour and clearly visible line creates a dynamically balanced structure underlining Cézanne’s notion that art should be ‘a harmony parallel to nature’ rather than a simple imitation of nature itself.

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), Apples, bottle and chairback, 1904 – 1906 (circa) © The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London