Plate of Peaches

A blue plate heaped with peaches glows against a shadowy background in this quiet scene by Paul Cézanne, painted during the 1890s. The fruit rests on a plain table covered with a wrinkled white cloth, its warm oranges and reds catching the light. Cézanne loved painting still life, and fruit in particular kept pulling him back throughout his career. Part of the appeal was practical too, since peaches and pears sat patiently while his human models fidgeted through his notoriously long painting sessions.

Rather than chasing a photographic likeness, Cézanne focused on the weight and shape of each peach and how one color played off the next. That way of thinking helped open the door to modern art, and both Picasso and Matisse later spoke of him almost as a mentor. Notice too how the bunched-up cloth resembles a range of tiny mountains, a small clue to how he understood the world as a set of solid forms and planes. Calm on the surface, the painting has plenty simmering underneath.