The Basket of Apples
In many ways Paul Cezanne was the odd man out among the artists branded as “Impressionists”—those who showed their works outside of France’s state-sponsored Salon exhibitions. Early on, he painted landscapes, the typical Impressionist subject, but his arresting and complex still lifes changed the traditional nature morte (dead nature) genre and continue to puzzle and tantalize today. At first glance, The Basket of Apples, the first of Cezanne’s works to enter the museum’s collection, appears to be a fruit-laden table setting anchored by a wine bottle. Closer looking reveals shifts in realit...
Details
- Palette
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Select a color to find related artworks.
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 65 × 80 cm (25 7/16 × 31 1/2 in.); Framed: 88 × 104.2 × 9.6 cm (34 5/8 × 41 × 3 3/4 in.)
- Origin
- France
- Department
- Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Holding institution
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Image provider
- art-institute-chicago
- License
- CC0-1.0
- Credit
- Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection
Art Genome Taxonomy
11 tags
Subject Matter
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Still Life Both · 99%
The image shows an arranged tabletop of fruit, vessels, baked goods, and cloth; the museum explicitly classifies the work as a still life.
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Food Both · 98%
Apples and baked goods are prominent in the image, and food is explicitly listed among the catalog subjects.
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Group of Objects Visual · 97%
Numerous distinct objects are assembled across the tabletop, including a basket, bottle, plate, fruit, and baked goods.
Styles and Movements
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Post-Impressionism Metadata · 99%
The museum lists Post-Impressionism as an associated style; the visible painterly brushwork and unstable spatial construction are also consistent with that classification.
Visual Qualities
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Asymmetrical Visual · 95%
The basket dominates the left side, the bottle rises near the center, and the plate and baked goods extend to the right without a symmetrical balance.
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Dense Composition Visual · 95%
Fruit, vessels, baked goods, fabric, and tabletop surfaces occupy most of the picture plane, leaving little open space around the arrangement.
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Angular Both · 91%
The folded cloth, tabletop edges, basket, and bottle are described with pronounced angled and faceted forms; the image visibly emphasizes these angular planes.
Medium and Techniques
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Oil Painting Metadata · 99%
The catalog specifies oil on canvas.
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Large Brushstrokes/Loose Brushwork Both · 93%
The image shows broad, varied strokes in the cloth, fruit, tabletop, and surrounding passages, and the museum specifically describes thick modeling strokes alongside sketch-like marks.
Time Periods
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19th Century Art Metadata · 98%
The museum associates the work with 19th-century art and dates it approximately to 1893, within the catalog range of 1887–1900.
Geographic Regions
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French Art Metadata · 98%
The catalog identifies Cezanne as French, gives France as the place of origin, and classifies the work as French and European painting.
Source & rights
Paul Cezanne. The Basket of Apples. The Art Institute of Chicago.