Fruits, Napkin and Milk Can

Cézanne set this still life on top of a wooden chest, against a wall covered in paper with a lozenge pattern. Everything on it is plain kitchen stuff. Apples, a small loaf, a knife, a crumpled napkin, a glass and a tall tin milk can. The painting is usually dated to 1880 or 1881. The Musée de l'Orangerie points to the unusual angle from which these objects are seen as the real novelty here, along with a cooler palette than in most of his still lifes, mostly greens, and the diamonds of the wallpaper repeating the geometry behind the table. In the 1920s the canvas belonged to Max Silberberg, a Jewish industrialist in Breslau who had put together a large collection of French painting. In June 1932 it was offered at an auction in Paris, and it found no buyer.