Milk Can and Apples

From April 1879 to March 1880, Cézanne lived in Melun, a small town on the Seine south-east of Paris, and the rooms he rented there may be where this wallpaper hung. The same pattern of loose leaves appears behind several of his still lifes from those months, sometimes half painted over. On the table in front of it he set a milk can, a crumpled white napkin, a small loaf and a scatter of apples, and he split the canvas into two bands. The cool blues of the napkin, the can and the wall sit above and against the yellows, oranges and reds of the fruit. The loaf, seen at a sharp angle, runs parallel to the diagonal fold of the linen. The painting later belonged to William S. Paley, the head of the CBS broadcasting network, and it came to the Museum of Modern Art with his collection.