Still Life with a Stoneware Jug

1874 was the year a group of painters in Paris, tired of being judged by the official Salon, mounted their own independent show, and a critic coined the mocking word Impressionist for them. Cezanne took part in that first exhibition, and of the whole group he drew the harshest ridicule. He painted this quiet still life around the same time, far from any scandal. He builds the stoneware jug up with blunt, loaded strokes, letting weight and volume matter more than a smooth finish, the habit that would later make him the painter younger artists studied hardest. The picture eventually entered the collection of Jacques Doucet, the Paris couturier, and it hangs today in his museum in Avignon.