Magnet Paul Cézanne - Apples and biscuits, 1880

PAUL CEZANNE (1839-1906)
Apples and Biscuits (detail), 1880.
Oil on canvas. H. 45; W. 55 cm. Paris, Musée de l'Orangerie.
© Photo GrandPalaisRmn (Musée de l'Orangerie) / H. Lewandowski.
© GrandPalaisRmnCréations, Paris 2025.
Made in France.

This painting is one of Paul Cezanne's most stunning masterpieces...

PAUL CEZANNE (1839-1906)
Apples and Biscuits (detail), 1880.
Oil on canvas. H. 45; W. 55 cm. Paris, Musée de l'Orangerie.
© Photo GrandPalaisRmn (Musée de l'Orangerie) / H. Lewandowski.
© GrandPalaisRmnCréations, Paris 2025.
Made in France.

This painting is one of Paul Cezanne's most stunning masterpieces and one of the symbols of his great mastery of still life painting. Domenica Walter paid a vast sum for it in 1952. This sensational purchase attracted public attention both to her and to her magnificent collection.
Here Cezanne created a very balanced composition with just a plate and a few apples arranged on a chest. His experiments into stylising forms and expressing volume through colour are fully developed in this painting. In fact Cezanne painted many still lifes at a time when this was considered a minor genre and was rather neglected. He wanted to restore its prestige and "to conquer Paris with an apple". For Cezanne, the pure form of this fruit was a poetic symbol. It also alludes to his great friendship with Emile Zola (1840-1902), the future writer and journalist, and an old school friend, who once gave Cezanne some apples as thanks for a favour.