Madame Cézanne in a Red Dress

The woman in the red dress is Hortense Fiquet, Cezanne's wife and by far his most-painted model. He portrayed her dozens of times over the years, almost always unsmiling and still, as though she were another of his apples or mountains to be studied rather than flattered. This version, made around 1889, sits her in the Paris apartment the couple rented on the Quai d'Anjou, beside the Seine. You can pick out the heavy patterned cloth on the right, the mantel mirror, the dark red skirting along the wall. Cezanne threads cool blues through the whole scene, into her hair, the shadows and the folds of the dress, so that the fierce red is held quietly in place rather than left to shout.