Natura morta con tenda

By 1898 Cezanne had largely withdrawn to Aix-en-Provence, working slowly and mostly alone, while in Paris a younger generation was starting to treat him as the painter to learn from. This still life comes out of that late period. The patterned curtain behind, the folds of white cloth, the apples and the flowered jug all sit as firm, weighed shapes, built up from small patches of colour rather than smooth surfaces. He would tip a tabletop or shift an outline when the whole picture needed it, which is why the objects feel solid and slightly off at once. It entered the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg through the great Moscow collectors who bought Cezanne early, when few others in Russia would look at him.