藁で覆われた花瓶、砂糖壺とリンゴ

Cezanne painted plates of apples over and over, maybe ten times with this same straw-wrapped vase, not because he cared about fruit but because a still life would hold still while he argued with it. And he did argue. Look at the table: its edge does not line up from one side of the vase to the other, the plate of apples tilts as if it might slide off, and he left a faint second outline where the vase first stood, never bothering to paint it out. None of this is clumsiness. Around 1890 Cezanne was deliberately bending what he saw so that the whole surface would lock together as a made thing. He wanted each object solid and weighty, and was willing to break the tabletop to get it.