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The Plate of Apples

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Trace the tilted plate’s rim, then compare the apples’ rounded contours with the flatter blue patterns behind and below them.

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The patterned wallpaper connects this still life to the Paris apartment Cézanne’s family occupied from 1875 to 1879. He also drew into partly dried paint around the plate and apples with a pointed tool, possibly a brush handle. The fruit’s solidity depends on worked edges as well as patches of color.

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Oil on canvas · 45.8 × 54.7 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · Post-Impressionism

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Details and source

Museum title
The Plate of Apples
Artist
Paul Cezanne (French, 1839–1906)
Date
c. 1877
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
45.8 × 54.7 cm (18 1/8 × 21 1/2 in.); Framed: 71.8 × 82.6 × 10.2 cm (28 1/4 × 32 1/2 × 4 in.)
Credit line
Gift of Kate L. Brewster
Image license
CC0 1.0 · Public domain
Museum record
Art Institute of Chicago

Artist’s life 1839–1906

Post-Impressionism c. 1886–1905

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Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.

The Plate of Apples · Paul Cézanne, c. 1877
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The Plate of Apples, Paul Cézanne

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