1877 -1906 · sphere, weight and color

Alone, cut by a knife, knocked over from a basket or mixed with oranges, apples become the unit with which Cézanne measures volume, balance and surface area.

Cézanne often chooses the apple because it remains available, moves easily and offers a round shape that color can shape. However, none is a perfect sphere. Touches of green, yellow, orange and red rotate the fruit while attaching it to the plane of the canvas. In Four Apples and a Knife, the small number makes each distance decisive. The Big Apples increase the scale until giving the fruit an almost monumental presence. Apples and oranges combine several curves with a fabric whose folds create slopes and hollows. The Apple Basket pushes the imbalance further: inclined basket, leaning bottle, disjointed table edges and ready fruits rolling are carefully planned. Infrared reveals that Cézanne modifies his initial design during painting, using color to simultaneously construct and break the illusion. The "Apples of Paul Cézanne" selection notably compares Four Apples and a Knife and The Big Apples. His reading favors details.

A Cézanne apple is at the same time a fruit, a volume and a color decision taken against neighboring apples.