About a dozen rust-orange and golden yellow apples and peaches are arranged on a white plate next to white and floral-patterned cloths nestled around a white pitcher and bowl, all on a wood tabletop that tilts toward us in this nearly square still life painting. A curtain patterned with royal blue, olive green, and beige falls along or near the back wall of the room and rests on the table to our left. The white pitcher is painted loosely with the suggestion of harvest-gold and pale lilac-purple flowers, and it sits amid the pooling folds of the curtain to our left. The white tablecloth is bunched under and next to it to our right, at the middle of the composition. The fruit is arranged on and around a white plate next to the tablecloth. A tall bowl with fluted sides and a ruffled, scalloped rim sits behind the fruit, near the right edge of the table. The curving skirt of the table reaches nearly to the bottom edge of the canvas. All the objects in the painting are outlined with dark blue and the shadows are painted with patches of spruce and cobalt blue.

Still Life with Apples and Peaches

Paul Cezanne

About a dozen rust-orange and golden yellow apples and peaches are arranged on a white plate next to white and floral-patterned cloths nestled around a white pitcher and bowl, all on a wood tabletop that tilts toward us in this nearly square still life painting. A curtain patterned with royal blue, olive green, and beige falls along or near the back wall of the room and rests on the table to our left. The white pitcher is painted loosely with the suggestion of harvest-gold and pale lilac-purple flowers, and it sits amid the pooling folds of the curtain to our left. The white tablecloth is bunched under and next to it to our right, at the middle of the composition. The fruit is arranged on and around a white plate next to the tablecloth. A tall bowl with fluted sides and a ruffled, scalloped rim sits behind the fruit, near the right edge of the table. The curving skirt of the table reaches nearly to the bottom edge of the canvas. All the objects in the painting are outlined with dark blue and the shadows are painted with patches of spruce and cobalt blue.

Colors in this work

Details

Artist
Paul Cezanne
Date
c. 1905
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 81 x 100.5 cm (31 7/8 x 39 9/16 in.) framed: 108.9 x 128.3 cm (42 7/8 x 50 1/2 in.)
Department
CF
Holding institution
National Gallery of Art
Image provider
national-gallery-of-art
License
CC0-1.0
Credit
Gift of Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer

Art Genome Taxonomy

11 tags

Subject Matter

  • Still Life Both · 99%

    The title identifies the work as a still life, and the image visibly presents an arranged group of fruit, vessels, textiles, and a table.

  • Food Both · 99%

    Apples and peaches are identified in the title and catalog description, and the image visibly depicts numerous pieces of fruit as the principal subject.

  • The catalog describes a pitcher, bowl, plate, cloths, and wooden tabletop, all of which are visibly represented as ordinary domestic objects.

Visual Qualities

  • Dark Colors Visual · 96%

    Dark browns, deep blues, blue-greens, and muted violets occupy much of the background, textiles, shadows, and table surfaces.

  • Dense Composition Visual · 96%

    Fruit, vessels, cloths, and table surfaces overlap across most of the picture plane, leaving relatively little open space.

  • Patterns Both · 94%

    Repeated motifs and contrasting bands are visible in the draped background fabric and cloths, consistent with the catalog description of patterned textiles.

  • Earth Tones Visual · 91%

    Brown, ochre, olive, rust, and muted orange passages establish a predominantly earthy color range, moderated by cool blue-green shadows.

Medium and Techniques

  • Oil Painting Both · 99%

    The catalog identifies the medium as oil on canvas, and the image is visibly a painted canvas composition.

  • Fruit, ceramic, fabric, and wood are rendered with broken, directional strokes and visibly loose surface handling rather than uniformly smooth modeling.

Time Periods

  • 1900 - 1917 Art Metadata · 97%

    The catalog date is c. 1905, which falls within the 1900–1917 period.

Tableware, Vessels, and Objects

  • Bowl Both · 98%

    A large fluted, scalloped-rimmed bowl is clearly visible at the right of the composition and is specifically identified in the catalog description.

Source & rights

Paul Cezanne. Still Life with Apples and Peaches. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.

High-resolution sources