Still Life with Apples

Paul Cézanne painted numerous still lifes featuring apples throughout his career, and this 1898 example shows his mature approach to form and color. Apples of varying reds, yellows, and greens sit on a rumpled white cloth, their rounded forms built up through small, deliberate brushstrokes.

Cézanne famously said he wanted to "astonish Paris with an apple," and his still lifes did exactly that. Rather than depicting objects from a single viewpoint, he subtly shifted perspectives within the same composition, flattening space and emphasizing the picture surface. These experiments influenced Picasso and Braque as they developed Cubism.

This particular work resides at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Small in scale but significant in influence, it exemplifies Cézanne's lasting impact on modern art.