Tabletop
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Flowers Bouquet Music and dance Cézanne Matisse Van Gogh Gris Picasso 1907-31 Marie-Thérèse
Chronology : 1890-1899 1890 1893 1895 1911 1915 1919
See also : Flowers Bouquet Music and dance Cézanne Matisse Van Gogh Gris Picasso 1907-31 Marie-Thérèse
Chronology : 1890-1899 1890 1893 1895 1911 1915 1919
CEZANNE
Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) produced approximately 200 still-life paintings over four decades, elevating a traditionally minor genre into a cornerstone of modern art. He used ordinary studio objects—fruit (especially apples), dishes, glasses, cloths, jars, and flowers—as subjects for rigorous formal investigation. His goal was not decorative arrangement or narrative symbolism but to realize “sensations” on canvas: building solid forms through color, exploring multiple viewpoints, and creating a structured “harmony parallel to nature.” He famously declared, “With an apple I will astonish Paris.”
Evolution of His Still Lifes
Early works (1860s) were often dark, thickly painted, and influenced by Romanticism or early Realism (e.g., Still Life with Kettle, 1867–69). By the mid-to-late 1870s, after contact with the Impressionists, he lightened his palette while developing his distinctive constructive method. The mature period (1880s–1900s) is dominated by repeated studio setups in Aix-en-Provence (and earlier visits to Auvers), where he controlled every element. Late works, including watercolors, grow more open, luminous, and process-oriented, with visible underdrawing and layered washes.
Core Characteristics and TechniqueCézanne staged objects carefully, propping or tilting them as needed. Key features include:
Key Works
Cézanne reinvented still life by stripping it of conventional hierarchy and narrative, turning it into a site of pure pictorial research. His faceted forms, multiple perspectives, and emphasis on the picture plane as a constructed surface directly paved the way for Cubism (Picasso and Braque explicitly acknowledged the debt). The works also influenced Fauvism, Matisse, and subsequent generations who valued structure over optical Impressionism.
In the context of the artists previously discussed, Cézanne’s still lifes served as a foundational model: Gauguin owned and repeatedly referenced them (especially the fruit dish); Van Gogh encountered the Auvers flower pieces in Gachet’s collection and adapted compositional elements (tilted tables, simple vessels) while transforming them through his own expressive energy. Cézanne’s analytical intensity thus stands in productive contrast to Gauguin’s symbolic and decorative aims and Van Gogh’s emotional urgency, yet all three elevated the still-life genre as a vehicle for modern painting.
Evolution of His Still Lifes
Early works (1860s) were often dark, thickly painted, and influenced by Romanticism or early Realism (e.g., Still Life with Kettle, 1867–69). By the mid-to-late 1870s, after contact with the Impressionists, he lightened his palette while developing his distinctive constructive method. The mature period (1880s–1900s) is dominated by repeated studio setups in Aix-en-Provence (and earlier visits to Auvers), where he controlled every element. Late works, including watercolors, grow more open, luminous, and process-oriented, with visible underdrawing and layered washes.
Core Characteristics and TechniqueCézanne staged objects carefully, propping or tilting them as needed. Key features include:
- Constructive brushstrokes: Parallel, directional marks that model volume through color modulation rather than traditional light-and-shade modeling.
- Multiple viewpoints and spatial ambiguity: Table edges that do not align, tilted surfaces, and objects seen from slightly different angles simultaneously. This creates compressed, shallow space and a sense of both solidity and potential instability (fruit that seems about to roll or hover).
- Color as form: Subtle gradations and complementary contrasts build three-dimensionality while emphasizing the flatness of the picture plane.
- Repetition: The same props (apples, ginger jars, blue patterned cloths known as indiennes, water jugs, white cloths) appear across series, allowing continuous research into relationships of form, color, and space.
- Lack of overt symbolism: Unlike traditional vanitas still lifes, Cézanne largely avoids moralizing messages, treating fruit and vessels as pure visual and structural elements (though occasional skulls or a plaster Cupid introduce contemplative notes).
Key Works
- Still Life with Fruit Dish (Nature morte au compotier, 1879–80, Museum of Modern Art, New York): A shallow, compressed composition of a fruit dish, glass, and apples. Roger Fry highlighted it as a masterpiece of constructive brushwork and complex perspective. It was the prized possession of Paul Gauguin, who called it “an exceptional pearl, the apple of my eye” and featured it in the background of his own portrait.
- The Basket of Apples (c. 1893, Art Institute of Chicago): Precarious tilting of the table and basket; disjointed edges and fruit that appear ready to tumble. Infrared studies reveal deliberate underdrawing of these “errors.”
- Still Life with a Ginger Jar and Eggplants (1893–94, Metropolitan Museum of Art) and related series of the 1890s featuring the same props linked by folded blue fabric.
- Curtain, Jug and Dish of Fruit (1893–94) and other tabletop arrangements that combine multiple moments of looking into one image.
- Flower still lifes: Early examples painted at Dr. Paul Gachet’s house in Auvers (1872–73), including Bouquet au petit vase de Delft and Dahlias dans un grand vase de Delft (both Musée d’Orsay, formerly in Gachet’s collection). These Delft-vase compositions later informed Van Gogh’s Auvers tabletop bouquets through shared table edges and simple vessel setups. Later flower works (e.g., The Vase of Tulips, c. 1890) continue the formal explorations.
- Late watercolors such as Still Life with Carafe, Bottle, and Fruit (1906) and The Three Skulls (1902–6), which leave process visible and achieve luminous transparency.
Cézanne reinvented still life by stripping it of conventional hierarchy and narrative, turning it into a site of pure pictorial research. His faceted forms, multiple perspectives, and emphasis on the picture plane as a constructed surface directly paved the way for Cubism (Picasso and Braque explicitly acknowledged the debt). The works also influenced Fauvism, Matisse, and subsequent generations who valued structure over optical Impressionism.
In the context of the artists previously discussed, Cézanne’s still lifes served as a foundational model: Gauguin owned and repeatedly referenced them (especially the fruit dish); Van Gogh encountered the Auvers flower pieces in Gachet’s collection and adapted compositional elements (tilted tables, simple vessels) while transforming them through his own expressive energy. Cézanne’s analytical intensity thus stands in productive contrast to Gauguin’s symbolic and decorative aims and Van Gogh’s emotional urgency, yet all three elevated the still-life genre as a vehicle for modern painting.
Paul Cézanne returns in 1878 to settle in Aix-en-Provence. He is alone to face the torment of his creativity and no longer exhibits in public. He seeks a universal art, abolishing the differences between the most disparate themes : portraits, landscapes, still lifes. Each work is reworked relentlessly up to the multi-sensory perfection desired by the artist.
Painting is the only possible medium for his interpretation of life, because it allows color harmonies. The laws of the perspective itself are not untouchable. Impressionism does not go far enough.
Emile Zola has certainly appreciated the depth of Cézanne's theories and his difficulties in sharing them. In his novel L'Oeuvre published in 1886, he stages a misunderstood painter whose idealistic passion leads to failure. A later letter from Cézanne to Zola, recently found, contradicts the legend of their breakup. Cézanne was obviously too soaked in his research to be indignant at the concern of his college friend.
On February 27, 2019, Christie's sold for £ 21M as lot 6 a still life of fruit, oil on canvas 38 x 46 cm painted in the mid 1880s. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The theme is modest and the composition is minimalist. On a rustic table without any ornament in a slightly plunging perspective, a plate contains five peaches and a pear. Another pear is placed to the right of the plate. The subtle variety of fruit color is not however the main subject of this experiment.
If the plate is placed flat on the table, its perfect circle is impossible. It is therefore inclined, at the limit of the imbalance of the fruit pyramid. Cézanne knew that realism does not exist in painting : nature is too complex to be imitated and the surface of the canvas does not allow an illusion of real space.
A probably later work gives the key to the enigma : now viewed in profile, the plate is actually tilted. This 28 x 40 cm oil on canvas was sold for $ 8.1M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2017, lot 27.
Many years later, Matisse tries an axiom according to which Cézanne was too perfectionist to make a mistake. He thus discovers the de-construction of perspective in the most seemingly simplistic still lifes by Cézanne, an artist too far ahead of his own time.
Painting is the only possible medium for his interpretation of life, because it allows color harmonies. The laws of the perspective itself are not untouchable. Impressionism does not go far enough.
Emile Zola has certainly appreciated the depth of Cézanne's theories and his difficulties in sharing them. In his novel L'Oeuvre published in 1886, he stages a misunderstood painter whose idealistic passion leads to failure. A later letter from Cézanne to Zola, recently found, contradicts the legend of their breakup. Cézanne was obviously too soaked in his research to be indignant at the concern of his college friend.
On February 27, 2019, Christie's sold for £ 21M as lot 6 a still life of fruit, oil on canvas 38 x 46 cm painted in the mid 1880s. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The theme is modest and the composition is minimalist. On a rustic table without any ornament in a slightly plunging perspective, a plate contains five peaches and a pear. Another pear is placed to the right of the plate. The subtle variety of fruit color is not however the main subject of this experiment.
If the plate is placed flat on the table, its perfect circle is impossible. It is therefore inclined, at the limit of the imbalance of the fruit pyramid. Cézanne knew that realism does not exist in painting : nature is too complex to be imitated and the surface of the canvas does not allow an illusion of real space.
A probably later work gives the key to the enigma : now viewed in profile, the plate is actually tilted. This 28 x 40 cm oil on canvas was sold for $ 8.1M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2017, lot 27.
Many years later, Matisse tries an axiom according to which Cézanne was too perfectionist to make a mistake. He thus discovers the de-construction of perspective in the most seemingly simplistic still lifes by Cézanne, an artist too far ahead of his own time.
1
1888-1890 Bouilloire et Fruits
2019 SOLD for $ 59M by Christie's
For Cézanne the work of art is a challenge. The theme is of minor importance since nature can be evoked but is never copied. From the mid-1880s he studies the still life of fruit on a table as a support for his theories of shapes, colors, harmony and even movement.
A still life from that phase was sold for £ 21M by Christie's in 2019. The composition seems naively simple until we perceive the imbalance of the plate. The observer awaits the tilting that will roll the fruit onto the table.
The artist will then increase the complexity. Bouilloire et fruits, oil on canvas 49 x 60 cm painted between 1888 and 1890, offers the dynamic contrast between a heavy pot steadily placed on the table and the fruits in a precarious balance in the folds of the tablecloth.
Cézanne reworked each painting tirelessly, seeking a perfection that existed only in his own imagination. Sometimes he stops before it is finished. The handle and the body of the kettle are disjointed. A lemon or an apple that did not suit the artist left some traces without disappearing completely.
It does not matter: the variety of forms and the mingling of the colors that constitute the textures are already satisfactory. Cézanne accepts to sell this unfinished work to a collector.
Bouilloire et fruits was sold for £ 18M by Sotheby's on December 7, 1999 and for $ 59M by Christie's on May 13, 2019, lot 18A. Please watch the very short video shared by the auction house.
Grok thought :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc May 14, 2019
Also from The Collection of S.I Newhouse, Cézanne's 'Bouilloire et fruits' realizes $59,295,000 at auction https://bit.ly/2PLtLnE
A still life from that phase was sold for £ 21M by Christie's in 2019. The composition seems naively simple until we perceive the imbalance of the plate. The observer awaits the tilting that will roll the fruit onto the table.
The artist will then increase the complexity. Bouilloire et fruits, oil on canvas 49 x 60 cm painted between 1888 and 1890, offers the dynamic contrast between a heavy pot steadily placed on the table and the fruits in a precarious balance in the folds of the tablecloth.
Cézanne reworked each painting tirelessly, seeking a perfection that existed only in his own imagination. Sometimes he stops before it is finished. The handle and the body of the kettle are disjointed. A lemon or an apple that did not suit the artist left some traces without disappearing completely.
It does not matter: the variety of forms and the mingling of the colors that constitute the textures are already satisfactory. Cézanne accepts to sell this unfinished work to a collector.
Bouilloire et fruits was sold for £ 18M by Sotheby's on December 7, 1999 and for $ 59M by Christie's on May 13, 2019, lot 18A. Please watch the very short video shared by the auction house.
Grok thought :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc May 14, 2019
Also from The Collection of S.I Newhouse, Cézanne's 'Bouilloire et fruits' realizes $59,295,000 at auction https://bit.ly/2PLtLnE
- Christie's post highlights the $59.3 million sale of Paul Cézanne's 1888-1890 oil "Bouilloire et fruits," a dynamic still life of a pewter kettle amid scattered fruits and folds of white cloth, leading the May 13, 2019, auction of S.I. Newhouse's Impressionist masterpieces.
- The painting's "unfinished" aesthetic—exposing primed canvas and deliberate brushstrokes—reflects Cézanne's revolutionary approach to form, originally acquired during his lifetime by Baron Denys Cochin, one of the artist's earliest non-family collectors.
- Provenance traces through five generations, including a 1999 Sotheby's recovery after theft, before Newhouse's purchase; the sale contributed to his collection totaling over $400 million, affirming his eye for undervalued modern art gems.
Also from The Collection of S.I Newhouse, Cézanne's 'Bouilloire et fruits' realizes $59,295,000 at auction https://t.co/0XESM9gIJx pic.twitter.com/JX9L5TU85u
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) May 13, 2019
2
1889-1890 Les Pommes
2013 SOLD for $ 42M by Sotheby's
Chardin had an innovative interpretation of the still life. He wanted his painting to approach as close as possible to the truth, and brought an extreme care in the texture.
Cézanne plays with apples like an infant with cubes. Fruits are grouped within small uneven piles in which their variety of colors brings an additional appeal. Sometimes a group is interrupted by the frame as if the row of fruit was unlimited.
If we consider that the real subject is the painting itself and not the appealing fruit, Cézanne's apples anticipate abstract art. His still life puzzles the viewer by its original composition, as if it tried to tell a story or to evoke a feeling, like Kandinsky and Miro later. Each individual element is however realistic like an image by Chardin.
The group of apples for sale at Sotheby's on May 7, 2013 is both simple and bold. This oil on canvas 38 x 46 cm painted in 1889-1890 was sold for $ 42M from a lower estimate of $ 25M, lot 7. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Pommes et poires, in the same technique and size as Les Pommes, is certainly an opportunity to vary the range of colors. It was sold for $ 20M by Sotheby's in 2021.
Grok thought :
Quote
Enchères Publiques @encherepublique Mar 9, 2016
Paul Cézanne, LES POMMES - #Auction Result: $41,605,000 - Sotheby's New York, May 7, 2013
Cézanne plays with apples like an infant with cubes. Fruits are grouped within small uneven piles in which their variety of colors brings an additional appeal. Sometimes a group is interrupted by the frame as if the row of fruit was unlimited.
If we consider that the real subject is the painting itself and not the appealing fruit, Cézanne's apples anticipate abstract art. His still life puzzles the viewer by its original composition, as if it tried to tell a story or to evoke a feeling, like Kandinsky and Miro later. Each individual element is however realistic like an image by Chardin.
The group of apples for sale at Sotheby's on May 7, 2013 is both simple and bold. This oil on canvas 38 x 46 cm painted in 1889-1890 was sold for $ 42M from a lower estimate of $ 25M, lot 7. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Pommes et poires, in the same technique and size as Les Pommes, is certainly an opportunity to vary the range of colors. It was sold for $ 20M by Sotheby's in 2021.
Grok thought :
Quote
Enchères Publiques @encherepublique Mar 9, 2016
Paul Cézanne, LES POMMES - #Auction Result: $41,605,000 - Sotheby's New York, May 7, 2013
- This 2016 post by a French public auctions account shares a 2013 Sotheby's sale of Paul Cézanne's still life "Les Pommes," an oil painting from circa 1878-1887 depicting apples on a plate against a muted background.
- The work, measuring 15x18 inches, sold for $41.6 million—surpassing its $25-35 million estimate—and exemplifies Cézanne's innovative use of color and form that influenced modern art movements like Cubism.
- Provenance traces to dealer Ambroise Vollard; the sale contributed to a $230 million Impressionist auction total, highlighting Cézanne's status as a top market draw for post-Impressionist masterpieces.
3
1893 Fruits et Pot de Gingembre
2023 SOLD for $ 39M by Christie's
The still lifes of fruits and pot painted by Cézanne between 1890 and 1893 continue his experiments on the rhythmic confrontation of colors. They differ from the previous period by the hazardous unbalance of objects that supersedes the fake perspective of tilted plates.
The danger for a fruit to fall from the table is created by the folds of the crumpled cloth over the edge of the table. A typical example from the end of that period is the Rideau, cruchon et compotier 60 x 73 cm sold for $ 60M by Sotheby's in 1999.
A smaller example is Fruits et pot de gingembre, oil on canvas 33 x 46 cm staging three apples, one pear, one pomegranate and a ginger pot. The position of the isolated golden apple on the white cloth is inviting for an imminent fall. This painting was sold for $ 39M by Christie's on November 9, 2023, lot 41 B.
A similar example is the pear ready to fall in the Nature morte au crâne owned by the Barnes Foundation. The group of fruits on the right side also have an unsafe position.
Grok thought :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 10, 2023
#AuctionUpdate: From our 20th Century Evening Sale, Paul Cezanne’s ‘Fruits et pot de gingembre’ realizes $38.94M
The danger for a fruit to fall from the table is created by the folds of the crumpled cloth over the edge of the table. A typical example from the end of that period is the Rideau, cruchon et compotier 60 x 73 cm sold for $ 60M by Sotheby's in 1999.
A smaller example is Fruits et pot de gingembre, oil on canvas 33 x 46 cm staging three apples, one pear, one pomegranate and a ginger pot. The position of the isolated golden apple on the white cloth is inviting for an imminent fall. This painting was sold for $ 39M by Christie's on November 9, 2023, lot 41 B.
A similar example is the pear ready to fall in the Nature morte au crâne owned by the Barnes Foundation. The group of fruits on the right side also have an unsafe position.
Grok thought :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 10, 2023
#AuctionUpdate: From our 20th Century Evening Sale, Paul Cezanne’s ‘Fruits et pot de gingembre’ realizes $38.94M
- Christie's post announces the $38.94 million sale of Paul Cézanne's 1893-1894 still life "Fruits et pot de gingembre" at its November 9, 2023, New York 20th Century Evening Sale, featuring a vibrant composition of peaches, pears, and a ginger jar on a draped table.
- The painting, from Switzerland's Fondation Langmatt collection, was a key highlight among three Cézanne works, exceeding its low estimate amid strong Impressionist and Modern art market demand.
- Its sale resolved a Nazi-era provenance dispute through a settlement with heirs of banker Jacob Goldschmidt, whose collection was looted in 1938, highlighting ongoing restitution efforts in the art world.
#AuctionUpdate: From our 20th Century Evening Sale, Paul Cezanne’s ‘Fruits et pot de gingembre’ realizes $38.94M pic.twitter.com/zG4SUgzNqY
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) November 10, 2023
4
1893-1894 Rideau, Cruchon et Compotier
1999 SOLD for $ 60M by Sotheby's
In 1886 Paul Cézanne inherited from his father. He found comfort in Jas de Bouffan, got married, and began the most experimental phase of his art, which would include the geometric deconstruction of the views of the Montagne Sainte-Victoire and of the still lifes. In his tabletops, he gradually breaks the laws of perspective in order to modify the respective volumes of objects.
Cézanne no longer needs his art to earn a living and does not date his works. The chronology of his still lifes can only be based on the evolution of their complexity. His vision weakened by a diabetes identified in 1890 may have prompted him to seek these new solutions.
He tirelessly changes the position of the same objects, with the same varieties of fruit, seeking the extreme limit of balance. It is only by a very careful inspection that the observer discovers that a dish is not placed on the top of the table but bent over a hidden support.
The crumpled white tablecloth becomes an essential element of the composition, bringing the impression of the imminent fall of the objects and fruits that are placed on it. The arrangements are becoming increasingly complex.
In 1893 or 1894, Cézanne painted two similar compositions, with the same jug and stemcup on the same table, and the same curtain.
Rideau, cruchon et compotier dangerously distributes the fruits in the folds of the tablecloth. The cup, with a spectacular stacking of fruit, is here hidden behind a rise in the tablecloth. All this will fall to the ground in a few moments.
This oil on canvas 60 x 73 cm was sold for $ 60M by Sotheby's on May 10, 1999. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
La Corbeille de pommes, oil on canvas 65 x 80 cm kept at the Art Institute of Chicago, illustrates similar conceptions : the lower part of the cup is hidden by some fruit. Here the very tilted position of the basket is partially explained by a thick wedge whose usefulness in real life is questionable.
Executed with the same arrangement, Pichet et fruits sur une table, oil on paper laid down on panel 42 x 72 cm is less dramatic because it does not include the tablecloth. It was sold for £ 11.8M by Sotheby's on February 3, 2010, lot 5.
Grok thought :
Quote
Bill Stratton @bill_stratton Jan 16, 2016
Paul Cézanne; “Rideau, Cruchon et Compotier (Jug, Curtain and Fruit Bowl)” (1893)
Cézanne no longer needs his art to earn a living and does not date his works. The chronology of his still lifes can only be based on the evolution of their complexity. His vision weakened by a diabetes identified in 1890 may have prompted him to seek these new solutions.
He tirelessly changes the position of the same objects, with the same varieties of fruit, seeking the extreme limit of balance. It is only by a very careful inspection that the observer discovers that a dish is not placed on the top of the table but bent over a hidden support.
The crumpled white tablecloth becomes an essential element of the composition, bringing the impression of the imminent fall of the objects and fruits that are placed on it. The arrangements are becoming increasingly complex.
In 1893 or 1894, Cézanne painted two similar compositions, with the same jug and stemcup on the same table, and the same curtain.
Rideau, cruchon et compotier dangerously distributes the fruits in the folds of the tablecloth. The cup, with a spectacular stacking of fruit, is here hidden behind a rise in the tablecloth. All this will fall to the ground in a few moments.
This oil on canvas 60 x 73 cm was sold for $ 60M by Sotheby's on May 10, 1999. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
La Corbeille de pommes, oil on canvas 65 x 80 cm kept at the Art Institute of Chicago, illustrates similar conceptions : the lower part of the cup is hidden by some fruit. Here the very tilted position of the basket is partially explained by a thick wedge whose usefulness in real life is questionable.
Executed with the same arrangement, Pichet et fruits sur une table, oil on paper laid down on panel 42 x 72 cm is less dramatic because it does not include the tablecloth. It was sold for £ 11.8M by Sotheby's on February 3, 2010, lot 5.
Grok thought :
Quote
Bill Stratton @bill_stratton Jan 16, 2016
Paul Cézanne; “Rideau, Cruchon et Compotier (Jug, Curtain and Fruit Bowl)” (1893)
- This 2016 post by art enthusiast @bill_stratton features Paul Cézanne's 1893 still life "Rideau, Cruchon et Compotier," depicting a curtain-draped table with fruits, a jug, and subtle spatial distortions.
- The work showcases Cézanne's mature style, using layered brushstrokes and geometric forms to explore volume and balance, influencing Cubism pioneers like Picasso.
- Auctioned for $60.5 million in 1999, it held the record as the priciest still life painting for over two decades, highlighting Cézanne's enduring market value.
5
1895 Fruits et Pot de Gingembre
2006 SOLD for $ 37M by Sotheby's
Cézanne's still life is a continuous quest for perfection. In the Impressionniste phase, that theme enables him to be compared with old masters like Chardin. Also the temperamental artist finds some quietness in arranging real fruit for painstakingly realizing a painting. It is not by chance that his preferred fruit in art, the apple, remains steady for a very long time before going rotten.
There is no still life by Cézanne for a few years from 1880. He restarts the theme around 1886, when he starts in Gardanne a new life that excites his creativity. This is the trompe-l'oeil phase, with a quest for the unbalance that manages to simulate a motion.
The trompe-l'oeil phase comes to an end in 1895. Afterward the still lifes become rarer for several years, mostly characterized by the addition of skulls. His creativity restarts once again at Les Lauves, when the still life participates to his obsession for the perfect color and luminosity.
Nature morte aux fruits et pot de gingembre is a masterpiece from the end of the trompe-l'oeil phase. Its terminus ante quem is its exhibition by Vollard in 1895, soon after its execution.
An interesting feature of this opus is the deep ultramarine underlining of the elements, reminding the underlining of the horizon of the Montagne Sainte-Victoire. A cut melon brings an unusual and much juicy freshness in its two parts, just open on the left side plus two slices on a plate at the central point of the still life. The symphony of rare colors includes intricate gradations from yellow to red.
This oil on canvas 46 x 61 cm was sold for £ 12M by Christie's on June 28, 2000, lot 10, and for $ 37M by Sotheby's on November 7, 2006, lot 18.
Grok thought :
Quote
Libreria Bourlot @LibreriaBourlot Apr 30, 2019
Paul Cézanne - Nature morte aux fruits et pot de gingembre, 1895 ca. #paulCézane #rte #Oiloncanvas (images Christie's London)
There is no still life by Cézanne for a few years from 1880. He restarts the theme around 1886, when he starts in Gardanne a new life that excites his creativity. This is the trompe-l'oeil phase, with a quest for the unbalance that manages to simulate a motion.
The trompe-l'oeil phase comes to an end in 1895. Afterward the still lifes become rarer for several years, mostly characterized by the addition of skulls. His creativity restarts once again at Les Lauves, when the still life participates to his obsession for the perfect color and luminosity.
Nature morte aux fruits et pot de gingembre is a masterpiece from the end of the trompe-l'oeil phase. Its terminus ante quem is its exhibition by Vollard in 1895, soon after its execution.
An interesting feature of this opus is the deep ultramarine underlining of the elements, reminding the underlining of the horizon of the Montagne Sainte-Victoire. A cut melon brings an unusual and much juicy freshness in its two parts, just open on the left side plus two slices on a plate at the central point of the still life. The symphony of rare colors includes intricate gradations from yellow to red.
This oil on canvas 46 x 61 cm was sold for £ 12M by Christie's on June 28, 2000, lot 10, and for $ 37M by Sotheby's on November 7, 2006, lot 18.
Grok thought :
Quote
Libreria Bourlot @LibreriaBourlot Apr 30, 2019
Paul Cézanne - Nature morte aux fruits et pot de gingembre, 1895 ca. #paulCézane #rte #Oiloncanvas (images Christie's London)
- Posted by Libreria Bourlot, an Italian antique bookstore established in 1848, the 2019 tweet showcases Paul Cézanne's 1895 oil still life "Nature morte aux fruits et pot de gingembre," featuring fruits, a ginger jar, and draped cloth on a table, using images credited to Christie's London.
- This composition exemplifies Cézanne's innovative approach to still life, blending geometric forms and vibrant colors to challenge perspective and influence Cubism, as seen in his deliberate brushwork and spatial distortions that prioritize sensation over realism.
- The painting fetched £12.1 million at Christie's in 2000 and $37 million at Sotheby's in 2006, highlighting its status as a rare, privately held masterpiece from Cézanne's mature period, with provenance tracing back to dealer Ambroise Vollard.
Paul Cézanne - Nature morte aux fruits et pot de gingembre, 1895 ca. #paulCézane #rte #Oiloncanvas
— Libreria Bourlot (@LibreriaBourlot) April 30, 2019
(images Christie's London) pic.twitter.com/fynxYnxjTK
van GOGH
Vincent van Gogh produced numerous still-life paintings featuring fruit, especially during his Paris period (1886–1888) and to a lesser extent earlier in the Netherlands and later in Arles. These works served primarily as exercises in color, light, brushwork, and composition rather than deep narrative or symbolic storytelling (unlike some of Gauguin’s more allegorical treatments). He used fruit to experiment with complementary contrasts, thicker paint application, and the expressive potential of everyday objects.
Early Dutch Period (Nuenen, 1884–1885)
In the Netherlands, Van Gogh painted somber, tonal still lifes of humble produce such as potatoes, apples, cabbages, and other vegetables. These dark, earthy works focused on materiality and volume. He aimed to convey the weight and solidity of the objects—writing that he wanted potatoes to look like “heavy, solid lumps” that “would hurt you if they were thrown at you.” Examples include Basket of Apples (1885) and various potato basket studies. These reflect his early realism and interest in peasant life.
Paris Period (1886–1888): Explosion of Color
Exposure to Impressionism, Neo-Impressionism, Japanese prints, and the Parisian avant-garde transformed his palette. Fruit still lifes became vibrant laboratories for color theory. He often arranged seasonal fruit (apples, pears, grapes, lemons, quinces, oranges) on tables or in baskets, emphasizing complementary contrasts (yellow-purple, blue-orange, red-green) and rhythmic, directional brushstrokes that create energy around the forms.
Notable examples include:
Arles Period (1888–1889)After moving south, Van Gogh continued occasional fruit still lifes amid his focus on landscapes, portraits, and the famous Sunflowers. A key example is Still Life of Oranges and Lemons with Blue Gloves (1889, National Gallery of Art, Washington). Painted shortly after his hospital release following the turbulent end of Gauguin’s stay, it shows citrus in a wicker basket with cypress branches and a pair of blue gloves. The gloves may hint at vulnerability or the need for protection; the work also had a practical eye toward the market.
He also painted many Flowering Orchards (blossoming fruit trees such as peach, apricot, and plum), which symbolize rebirth, hope, and spiritual renewal rather than harvested fruit.
Style, Technique, and PurposeVan Gogh treated fruit as opportunities to explore:
Overall, Van Gogh’s fruit still lifes chart his rapid evolution from dark, material Dutch realism to the brilliant, expressive Post-Impressionist style that defined his mature work. They demonstrate how ordinary objects could become vehicles for radical color experimentation and personal artistic discovery.
Vincent van Gogh’s still-life practice extended well beyond fruit to include numerous tabletop arrangements of flowers and bouquets in vases. These works, especially those from his Paris years and the final Auvers-sur-Oise period, served as vehicles for color experimentation, expressive brushwork, and emotional intensity—paralleling his fruit still lifes while often incorporating elements of the natural world he encountered outdoors.
From Fruit to Bouquets: Continuity and ExpansionIn Paris (1886–1888), alongside vibrant fruit compositions such as Grapes, Lemons, Pears, and Apples or Quinces, Lemons, Pears and Grapes, Van Gogh produced many floral still lifes. He sought out flowers of varied hues to practice complementary contrasts and move beyond the dark, tonal palette of his Dutch period. Friends sent bouquets, and he purchased inexpensive ones, focusing on reds, blues, yellows, and greens. These tabletops typically feature a simple vase or vessel on a surface, with energetic, directional strokes that animate both the blooms and the surrounding space—much as his fruit works used pulsating brushwork around apples or citrus.
In Arles and later periods, flowers (including the famous Sunflowers) and mixed field bouquets continued this trajectory, blending still-life intimacy with the vitality of landscapes. By the time of his arrival in Auvers-sur-Oise in May 1890, after leaving the asylum at Saint-Rémy, these tabletop works reached a peak of frantic expressiveness.
Early Dutch Period (Nuenen, 1884–1885)
In the Netherlands, Van Gogh painted somber, tonal still lifes of humble produce such as potatoes, apples, cabbages, and other vegetables. These dark, earthy works focused on materiality and volume. He aimed to convey the weight and solidity of the objects—writing that he wanted potatoes to look like “heavy, solid lumps” that “would hurt you if they were thrown at you.” Examples include Basket of Apples (1885) and various potato basket studies. These reflect his early realism and interest in peasant life.
Paris Period (1886–1888): Explosion of Color
Exposure to Impressionism, Neo-Impressionism, Japanese prints, and the Parisian avant-garde transformed his palette. Fruit still lifes became vibrant laboratories for color theory. He often arranged seasonal fruit (apples, pears, grapes, lemons, quinces, oranges) on tables or in baskets, emphasizing complementary contrasts (yellow-purple, blue-orange, red-green) and rhythmic, directional brushstrokes that create energy around the forms.
Notable examples include:
- Grapes, Lemons, Pears, and Apples (1887, Art Institute of Chicago) — One of a series of related autumn fruit canvases. Vibrant complementary colors and pulsating brushwork on the tablecloth create intensity around the fruit. Van Gogh’s friend Émile Bernard called such works “violent still lifes.”
- Quinces, Lemons, Pears and Grapes (1887, Van Gogh Museum) — Dominated by shades of yellow (with accents of green, blue, red, and pink). Van Gogh painted the original frame as well (the only known surviving original frame by him) and dedicated it to his brother Theo, who had urged him to use more color. He reportedly tested combinations with wool threads beforehand.
- Apples (1887, Van Gogh Museum) — An explosion of contrasting blues/greens in the background against warm tones in the fruit, creating visual unity through reversed color orders.
- Still Life with Fruit and Chestnuts (autumn 1886, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco) — Recently re-attributed more firmly to Van Gogh. Features complementary red-green apples and pears nestled among chestnuts, evoking autumn.
- Other works: Basket of Apples, Basket of Oranges, Still Life with Quince Pears, Carafe and Dish with Citrus Fruit, and combinations with flowers or vessels.
Arles Period (1888–1889)After moving south, Van Gogh continued occasional fruit still lifes amid his focus on landscapes, portraits, and the famous Sunflowers. A key example is Still Life of Oranges and Lemons with Blue Gloves (1889, National Gallery of Art, Washington). Painted shortly after his hospital release following the turbulent end of Gauguin’s stay, it shows citrus in a wicker basket with cypress branches and a pair of blue gloves. The gloves may hint at vulnerability or the need for protection; the work also had a practical eye toward the market.
He also painted many Flowering Orchards (blossoming fruit trees such as peach, apricot, and plum), which symbolize rebirth, hope, and spiritual renewal rather than harvested fruit.
Style, Technique, and PurposeVan Gogh treated fruit as opportunities to explore:
- Color relationships and complementary contrasts for optical vibration.
- Brushwork — short, energetic, directional strokes that give the fruit and surrounding surfaces a sense of life and movement.
- Composition — tilted tabletops (influenced by Japanese prints), flattened or dynamic space, and careful arrangement of forms.
- Practical experimentation while living simply; still lifes were accessible subjects that allowed him to refine techniques learned from contemporaries and Old Masters.
Overall, Van Gogh’s fruit still lifes chart his rapid evolution from dark, material Dutch realism to the brilliant, expressive Post-Impressionist style that defined his mature work. They demonstrate how ordinary objects could become vehicles for radical color experimentation and personal artistic discovery.
Vincent van Gogh’s still-life practice extended well beyond fruit to include numerous tabletop arrangements of flowers and bouquets in vases. These works, especially those from his Paris years and the final Auvers-sur-Oise period, served as vehicles for color experimentation, expressive brushwork, and emotional intensity—paralleling his fruit still lifes while often incorporating elements of the natural world he encountered outdoors.
From Fruit to Bouquets: Continuity and ExpansionIn Paris (1886–1888), alongside vibrant fruit compositions such as Grapes, Lemons, Pears, and Apples or Quinces, Lemons, Pears and Grapes, Van Gogh produced many floral still lifes. He sought out flowers of varied hues to practice complementary contrasts and move beyond the dark, tonal palette of his Dutch period. Friends sent bouquets, and he purchased inexpensive ones, focusing on reds, blues, yellows, and greens. These tabletops typically feature a simple vase or vessel on a surface, with energetic, directional strokes that animate both the blooms and the surrounding space—much as his fruit works used pulsating brushwork around apples or citrus.
In Arles and later periods, flowers (including the famous Sunflowers) and mixed field bouquets continued this trajectory, blending still-life intimacy with the vitality of landscapes. By the time of his arrival in Auvers-sur-Oise in May 1890, after leaving the asylum at Saint-Rémy, these tabletop works reached a peak of frantic expressiveness.
1890 Vase aux Marguerites et Coquelicots
2014 SOLD for $ 62M by Sotheby's
After he entered the asylum at Saint-Rémy de Provence in May 1889, the health of Vincent van Gogh did not improve. But they had to look for a solution. Auvers-sur-Oise is a pretty village frequented by artists. His visit is prepared by his brother Theo in consultation with Dr. Gachet.
In May 1890 Vincent moved into a room at the local inn in Auvers. He did not have a studio and regularly attended the home of Gachet, a friend of the Impressionists and Cézanne.
Since he is sick, Vincent is terrorized by the idea of failure and by the risk of a new crisis of dementia. With the energy of despair, he gives a new impetus to his old ambition to become the best painter of all time, the only one capable of a synthesis of all genres. Gachet has a painting by Cézanne showing a bouquet of flowers. Vincent wants to do better.
Spring brings forth the flowers into the fields. On November 4, 2014, Sotheby's sold for $ 62M from a lower estimate of $ 30M an oil on canvas 66 x 50 cm painted by Vincent on 16 and 17 June 1890, lot 17. Executed in the clear intention to thank Gachet for his help, this artwork shows a vase filled with daisies and poppies.
The composition is powerful and the colors are gorgeous, dominated in the center by the fiery red poppies. The groups of flowers shine like some characters within the ultimate tragedy of Vincent.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
Nature morte, Vase aux marguerites et coquelicots (Still Life: Vase with Daisies and Poppies), June 1890
This major late work (also known as Vase with Daisies and Poppies, Fleurs de Champs, or similar variants; catalogue F280 / JH2032) exemplifies Van Gogh’s Auvers tabletop bouquets. Painted mid-June 1890 (specifically around June 16–17) on oil on canvas measuring approximately 66 × 51 cm (26 × 20⅛ inches), it depicts a modest earthenware vase overflowing with wildflowers gathered from the fields of Auvers: bright red poppies (coquelicots), white daisies (marguerites), cornflowers, thistles, ears of wheat, and leafy sprays.
The composition places the vase on a table (often noted for its rounded edge, recalling Cézanne still lifes in Dr. Paul Gachet’s collection), against a simply treated background. Thick, rapid, swirling brushstrokes convey a sense of “frantic energy” and the “desperately swift passing away of things.” Colors are richly saturated—scarlet poppies contrasting with whites, blues, greens, and yellows—creating visual drama that transcends a conventional still life and offers a psychological portrait of the artist at a moment of intense productivity mixed with underlying despair.
Context and creation: Van Gogh had settled at the Auberge Ravoux in Auvers and frequently visited the home of his physician and “ready-made friend,” Dr. Paul Gachet, whose house was filled with antiques and Impressionist works (including Cézanne flower pieces). Lacking a proper studio, he painted there or in the fields. He gathered the wild plants on walks to Gachet’s and arranged them in one of the doctor’s simple vases amid the cluttered, antique-filled surroundings. In letters he expressed enthusiasm for working quickly and for the opportunities Gachet’s home provided for still lifes. The painting is one of a small group of floral still lifes from his roughly 70 days in Auvers (alongside works such as Still Life, Vase with Field Flowers and Thistle). It was likely given to Gachet (possibly in exchange for treatment) and is among the few works Van Gogh is known to have sold or traded in his lifetime.
Technique and style: The work shows the late Van Gogh style at full force—loose, emphatic outlines, impasto, and rhythmic strokes that make the bouquet seem alive and almost turbulent. It builds on the color intensity of his Paris fruit and flower still lifes but with greater emotional urgency and less restraint, reflecting the “height of his mania” only weeks before his death in late July 1890. Inspiration from Cézanne appears in the table edge and overall arrangement, while the choice of ordinary field flowers (rather than cultivated blooms) aligns with his preference for humble, natural subjects seen in earlier fruit and vegetable still lifes.
Provenance and later history: Probably from Gachet to Gaston Alexandre Camentron (Paris), then Paul Cassirer (Berlin, 1911), through German private collections, Knoedler, and eventually to A. Conger Goodyear (a founder of MoMA) and family; later associated with the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. It appeared in major early exhibitions of Van Gogh’s work (including MoMA shows in the 1920s–1930s). In November 2014 it sold at Sotheby’s New York for $61,765,000 (estimate $30–50 million), acquired by a private Asian collector.
Broader Place in Van Gogh’s Still-Life Oeuvre
Tabletop bouquets like this one extend the experimental spirit of his fruit paintings: accessible subjects for refining color harmonies, brushwork, and composition while conveying personal feeling. Paris fruit still lifes emphasized optical vibration and seasonal abundance through complementary contrasts; Auvers flower pieces intensify that energy into something more turbulent and introspective, often painted from flowers gathered outdoors and set indoors. Together they demonstrate how Van Gogh transformed ordinary tabletop arrangements—whether apples and grapes or poppies and daisies—into vehicles for modern expressive painting, culminating in the raw vitality of his final months.
In May 1890 Vincent moved into a room at the local inn in Auvers. He did not have a studio and regularly attended the home of Gachet, a friend of the Impressionists and Cézanne.
Since he is sick, Vincent is terrorized by the idea of failure and by the risk of a new crisis of dementia. With the energy of despair, he gives a new impetus to his old ambition to become the best painter of all time, the only one capable of a synthesis of all genres. Gachet has a painting by Cézanne showing a bouquet of flowers. Vincent wants to do better.
Spring brings forth the flowers into the fields. On November 4, 2014, Sotheby's sold for $ 62M from a lower estimate of $ 30M an oil on canvas 66 x 50 cm painted by Vincent on 16 and 17 June 1890, lot 17. Executed in the clear intention to thank Gachet for his help, this artwork shows a vase filled with daisies and poppies.
The composition is powerful and the colors are gorgeous, dominated in the center by the fiery red poppies. The groups of flowers shine like some characters within the ultimate tragedy of Vincent.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
Nature morte, Vase aux marguerites et coquelicots (Still Life: Vase with Daisies and Poppies), June 1890
This major late work (also known as Vase with Daisies and Poppies, Fleurs de Champs, or similar variants; catalogue F280 / JH2032) exemplifies Van Gogh’s Auvers tabletop bouquets. Painted mid-June 1890 (specifically around June 16–17) on oil on canvas measuring approximately 66 × 51 cm (26 × 20⅛ inches), it depicts a modest earthenware vase overflowing with wildflowers gathered from the fields of Auvers: bright red poppies (coquelicots), white daisies (marguerites), cornflowers, thistles, ears of wheat, and leafy sprays.
The composition places the vase on a table (often noted for its rounded edge, recalling Cézanne still lifes in Dr. Paul Gachet’s collection), against a simply treated background. Thick, rapid, swirling brushstrokes convey a sense of “frantic energy” and the “desperately swift passing away of things.” Colors are richly saturated—scarlet poppies contrasting with whites, blues, greens, and yellows—creating visual drama that transcends a conventional still life and offers a psychological portrait of the artist at a moment of intense productivity mixed with underlying despair.
Context and creation: Van Gogh had settled at the Auberge Ravoux in Auvers and frequently visited the home of his physician and “ready-made friend,” Dr. Paul Gachet, whose house was filled with antiques and Impressionist works (including Cézanne flower pieces). Lacking a proper studio, he painted there or in the fields. He gathered the wild plants on walks to Gachet’s and arranged them in one of the doctor’s simple vases amid the cluttered, antique-filled surroundings. In letters he expressed enthusiasm for working quickly and for the opportunities Gachet’s home provided for still lifes. The painting is one of a small group of floral still lifes from his roughly 70 days in Auvers (alongside works such as Still Life, Vase with Field Flowers and Thistle). It was likely given to Gachet (possibly in exchange for treatment) and is among the few works Van Gogh is known to have sold or traded in his lifetime.
Technique and style: The work shows the late Van Gogh style at full force—loose, emphatic outlines, impasto, and rhythmic strokes that make the bouquet seem alive and almost turbulent. It builds on the color intensity of his Paris fruit and flower still lifes but with greater emotional urgency and less restraint, reflecting the “height of his mania” only weeks before his death in late July 1890. Inspiration from Cézanne appears in the table edge and overall arrangement, while the choice of ordinary field flowers (rather than cultivated blooms) aligns with his preference for humble, natural subjects seen in earlier fruit and vegetable still lifes.
Provenance and later history: Probably from Gachet to Gaston Alexandre Camentron (Paris), then Paul Cassirer (Berlin, 1911), through German private collections, Knoedler, and eventually to A. Conger Goodyear (a founder of MoMA) and family; later associated with the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. It appeared in major early exhibitions of Van Gogh’s work (including MoMA shows in the 1920s–1930s). In November 2014 it sold at Sotheby’s New York for $61,765,000 (estimate $30–50 million), acquired by a private Asian collector.
Broader Place in Van Gogh’s Still-Life Oeuvre
Tabletop bouquets like this one extend the experimental spirit of his fruit paintings: accessible subjects for refining color harmonies, brushwork, and composition while conveying personal feeling. Paris fruit still lifes emphasized optical vibration and seasonal abundance through complementary contrasts; Auvers flower pieces intensify that energy into something more turbulent and introspective, often painted from flowers gathered outdoors and set indoors. Together they demonstrate how Van Gogh transformed ordinary tabletop arrangements—whether apples and grapes or poppies and daisies—into vehicles for modern expressive painting, culminating in the raw vitality of his final months.
GAUGUIN
In Paul Gauguin’s Tahitian (and later Marquesan) works, fruit functions as a multilayered Symbolist motif rather than mere decorative or ethnographic detail. It evokes abundance, fertility, an idealized “primitive” paradise, and a reimagined Garden of Eden, while often carrying personal or cultural undertones of outsider status, nostalgia, and the tension between innocence and the Fall.
Edenic and Biblical ResonancesGauguin frequently recast Tahitian women as Polynesian Eves. He substituted local flora and fruit for the biblical apple and a lizard (or similar) for the serpent, creating a tropical version of temptation and origins that downplays (or reinterprets) original sin.
Fertility, Everyday Life, and AbundanceFruit represents the fertility of the land and of Tahitian women, as well as the simple, primordial rhythms of island life. Women carrying or holding fruit appear as symbols of nourishment, motherhood, and harmony with nature.
Pure Still Lifes and Personal SymbolismDedicated still lifes of fruit are rarer but revealing. Nature morte aux fruits et piments (Still Life with Fruit and Peppers / Still Life with Tahitian Oranges, 1892) shows rounded oranges piled in a dish alongside spicy peppers. One interpretation sees the harmonious, contained fruit as a metaphor for an organically unified community from which the “spicy” outsider (Gauguin himself) is excluded. The fruits may represent an imaginary feast rather than the artist’s actual sparse diet. Similar motifs reappear in later works, including the 1901 still life with fruits and flowers (closely related to the grapefruit/pamplemousse painting discussed previously).
Oranges (introduced to Tahiti, possibly associated with European contact) could also evoke connections between France and the islands or carry undertones of nostalgia and even subtle corruption or plague metaphors in some readings. Still lifes often paid homage to Cézanne (whose fruit paintings Gauguin prized) while adapting the genre to tropical subjects and flattened, decorative color.
Broader Context in Gauguin’s SymbolismFruit participates in Gauguin’s larger Symbolist synthesis: Christian, Polynesian, classical, and personal myths of origins, life cycles, and the critique of Western civilization. In monumental works such as Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (1897–98), figures interacting with fruit or nature contribute to the narrative of birth, existence, and mortality. Overall, Tahitian fruit embodies the artist’s longed-for “primitive” paradise—abundant, sensual, and spiritually charged—while revealing its constructed, nostalgic, and sometimes conflicted nature.
This symbolism is not rigid or single-layered; Gauguin invited multiple readings, blending observation, memory, imagination, and invented myth.
Edenic and Biblical ResonancesGauguin frequently recast Tahitian women as Polynesian Eves. He substituted local flora and fruit for the biblical apple and a lizard (or similar) for the serpent, creating a tropical version of temptation and origins that downplays (or reinterprets) original sin.
- In works such as Te nave nave fenua (Delightful Land, 1892) and related “Tahitian Eve” images, native flowers or fruit take the place of the apple, emphasizing a pre- or alternative-to-Christian innocence.
- Gathering or holding fruit often alludes to the Tree of Knowledge. In Ruperupe (Tahiti Is a Wonderful Land. Gathering Fruit, 1899), the left side (women with flowers and fruit) symbolizes the Garden of Eden before the Fall, while a central figure picking fruit recalls temptation; the right side shifts toward earthly cycles of birth and death.
- In Te arii vahine (The King’s Wife / Woman with Mangoes, 1896), a reclining nude is accompanied by a servant gathering fruit and old men near a tree of knowledge, with a serpentine vine; Gauguin described it as a “naked queen” scene that blends Tahitian sensuality with biblical echoes while aiming for a sinless or pre-missionary morality.
Fertility, Everyday Life, and AbundanceFruit represents the fertility of the land and of Tahitian women, as well as the simple, primordial rhythms of island life. Women carrying or holding fruit appear as symbols of nourishment, motherhood, and harmony with nature.
- Eu haere ia oe (Woman Holding a Fruit / Where Are You Going?, 1893) presents a standing Tahitian woman (sometimes linked to Gauguin’s companion) with fruit as an “Eve of that eastern Paradise,” embodying natural harmony and the eternal cycle of life.
- Mangoes, abundant in Tahiti, recur as emblems of fertility and exotic appeal; they appear both in still lifes and figure paintings (e.g., Vahine no te vi).
- Gathering fruit is portrayed as a basic, life-sustaining activity that underscores Gauguin’s vision of a pre-civilized existence.
Pure Still Lifes and Personal SymbolismDedicated still lifes of fruit are rarer but revealing. Nature morte aux fruits et piments (Still Life with Fruit and Peppers / Still Life with Tahitian Oranges, 1892) shows rounded oranges piled in a dish alongside spicy peppers. One interpretation sees the harmonious, contained fruit as a metaphor for an organically unified community from which the “spicy” outsider (Gauguin himself) is excluded. The fruits may represent an imaginary feast rather than the artist’s actual sparse diet. Similar motifs reappear in later works, including the 1901 still life with fruits and flowers (closely related to the grapefruit/pamplemousse painting discussed previously).
Oranges (introduced to Tahiti, possibly associated with European contact) could also evoke connections between France and the islands or carry undertones of nostalgia and even subtle corruption or plague metaphors in some readings. Still lifes often paid homage to Cézanne (whose fruit paintings Gauguin prized) while adapting the genre to tropical subjects and flattened, decorative color.
Broader Context in Gauguin’s SymbolismFruit participates in Gauguin’s larger Symbolist synthesis: Christian, Polynesian, classical, and personal myths of origins, life cycles, and the critique of Western civilization. In monumental works such as Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (1897–98), figures interacting with fruit or nature contribute to the narrative of birth, existence, and mortality. Overall, Tahitian fruit embodies the artist’s longed-for “primitive” paradise—abundant, sensual, and spiritually charged—while revealing its constructed, nostalgic, and sometimes conflicted nature.
This symbolism is not rigid or single-layered; Gauguin invited multiple readings, blending observation, memory, imagination, and invented myth.
Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin both elevated the fruit still life into a major vehicle for modern painting, yet their approaches diverged significantly in purpose, technique, and meaning. Gauguin deeply admired Cézanne—he owned several of his works, including the celebrated Still Life with Fruit Dish (Nature morte au compotier, 1879–80, now MoMA), which he called “an exceptional pearl, the apple of my eye,” and even featured it in the background of his own Woman in Front of a Still Life by Cézanne (1890). He reportedly urged fellow artists, “Let’s make a Cézanne!” when painting still lifes.
Shared Foundations
Both artists moved beyond traditional still-life naturalism. They treated fruit (especially apples, but also oranges, lemons, mangoes, and others) not as mere decorative objects but as formal and expressive elements. They shared an interest in structured composition, bold color, and a rejection of pure Impressionist optical effects in favor of more constructed, enduring forms. Gauguin’s early still lifes and some Tahitian ones (e.g., Still Life with Teapot and Fruit, 1896) directly respond to or homage Cézanne’s tabletop arrangements, rumpled cloths, vessels, and clustered fruit.
Key Differences
Cézanne’s Approach
Cézanne treated still life as a laboratory for perceptual and structural investigation. He painted roughly 200 still lifes, repeatedly arranging the same ordinary objects (apples, dishes, glasses, cloths) in his studio to explore volume, space, and “sensations.”
Gauguin absorbed Cézanne’s lessons (distinct brushstrokes, flattened space, intense color) but subordinated them to Symbolist and decorative aims, especially after the late 1880s and in Tahiti.
Cézanne generally preferred ordinary European fruits such as apples, pears, and grapes, while Gauguin began with similar subjects but later favored tropical ones including mangoes, oranges, and grapefruits. Cézanne constructed a shallow, multi-viewpoint space; Gauguin favored a flatter, more decorative space that sometimes retained a more coherent perspective. Cézanne relied on distinct, constructive brushwork that modulated volume; Gauguin used broader color areas, clear outlines, and rhythmic patterns. Cézanne modulated color primarily to build form; Gauguin applied bold, flat, symbolic, and expressive color. Cézanne’s purpose centered on investigating perception and structure; Gauguin’s emphasized symbolism, decoration, personal mythology, and exoticism. A representative Cézanne example is Still Life with Fruit Dish (1879–80); for Gauguin, Still Life with Teapot and Fruit (1896) or his Tahitian orange still lifes serve as clear counterparts.
Relationship and Evolution
Gauguin’s still lifes often begin as responses to Cézanne (compositional quotations, shared motifs) but assert independence through brighter color, exotic content, and symbolic intent. Cézanne reportedly accused Gauguin of “stealing” his “little sensation.” By the Tahitian period, Gauguin had largely moved beyond direct emulation, using the still-life genre more freely for decorative and thematic ends while retaining a residual structural discipline learned from Cézanne.
In essence, Cézanne made fruit the subject of rigorous formal inquiry, while Gauguin made fruit a vehicle for expressive, symbolic, and exotic vision. Both transformed a traditional minor genre into a cornerstone of modern art, with Gauguin standing as both devoted admirer and creative rival.
Shared Foundations
Both artists moved beyond traditional still-life naturalism. They treated fruit (especially apples, but also oranges, lemons, mangoes, and others) not as mere decorative objects but as formal and expressive elements. They shared an interest in structured composition, bold color, and a rejection of pure Impressionist optical effects in favor of more constructed, enduring forms. Gauguin’s early still lifes and some Tahitian ones (e.g., Still Life with Teapot and Fruit, 1896) directly respond to or homage Cézanne’s tabletop arrangements, rumpled cloths, vessels, and clustered fruit.
Key Differences
Cézanne’s Approach
Cézanne treated still life as a laboratory for perceptual and structural investigation. He painted roughly 200 still lifes, repeatedly arranging the same ordinary objects (apples, dishes, glasses, cloths) in his studio to explore volume, space, and “sensations.”
- Technique: Constructive brushstrokes (parallel, directional marks that build form), multiple simultaneous viewpoints that slightly distort perspective and flatten space, and careful modulation of color to model volume. Apples become solid, almost architectural forms.
- Goal: To realize the permanence and structure of nature on a flat surface—“With an apple I will astonish Paris.” His fruit feels weighty, tangible, and observed through shifting perception rather than literal copying. Space is compressed and unstable; objects tilt or hover.
- Mood: Analytical, contemplative, and formal. Symbolism is secondary or psychological (some interpret apples as sublimated desire), but the primary focus is the act of seeing and painting.
Gauguin absorbed Cézanne’s lessons (distinct brushstrokes, flattened space, intense color) but subordinated them to Symbolist and decorative aims, especially after the late 1880s and in Tahiti.
- Technique: Flatter areas of pure, non-naturalistic color with bold outlines (cloisonnism influence), rhythmic patterns, and less emphasis on volumetric modeling. Fruit often appears more simplified, glowing, or exotic. Perspective is deliberately flattened for decorative effect. In Tahitian works he frequently replaced European apples with tropical fruits (oranges, mangoes, grapefruits/pamplemousses).
- Goal: Expression of ideas, emotion, and imagined paradise rather than optical truth. Still lifes can carry personal or symbolic weight—community vs. outsider status, fertility, nostalgia, or Edenic abundance—while also serving as pure decorative ensembles. He painted fewer pure still lifes than Cézanne and often integrated fruit into larger figure compositions.
- Mood: More emotional, exotic, and narrative. Color is hotter and more arbitrary; the surface prioritizes pattern and symbolic suggestion over structural analysis. Later Tahitian still lifes (e.g., Nature morte aux fruits et piments, 1892, or the 1901 Nature morte aux fruits et fleurs) blend homage to Cézanne with tropical subjects and a sense of memory or consolation after selling his prized Cézanne.
Cézanne generally preferred ordinary European fruits such as apples, pears, and grapes, while Gauguin began with similar subjects but later favored tropical ones including mangoes, oranges, and grapefruits. Cézanne constructed a shallow, multi-viewpoint space; Gauguin favored a flatter, more decorative space that sometimes retained a more coherent perspective. Cézanne relied on distinct, constructive brushwork that modulated volume; Gauguin used broader color areas, clear outlines, and rhythmic patterns. Cézanne modulated color primarily to build form; Gauguin applied bold, flat, symbolic, and expressive color. Cézanne’s purpose centered on investigating perception and structure; Gauguin’s emphasized symbolism, decoration, personal mythology, and exoticism. A representative Cézanne example is Still Life with Fruit Dish (1879–80); for Gauguin, Still Life with Teapot and Fruit (1896) or his Tahitian orange still lifes serve as clear counterparts.
Relationship and Evolution
Gauguin’s still lifes often begin as responses to Cézanne (compositional quotations, shared motifs) but assert independence through brighter color, exotic content, and symbolic intent. Cézanne reportedly accused Gauguin of “stealing” his “little sensation.” By the Tahitian period, Gauguin had largely moved beyond direct emulation, using the still-life genre more freely for decorative and thematic ends while retaining a residual structural discipline learned from Cézanne.
In essence, Cézanne made fruit the subject of rigorous formal inquiry, while Gauguin made fruit a vehicle for expressive, symbolic, and exotic vision. Both transformed a traditional minor genre into a cornerstone of modern art, with Gauguin standing as both devoted admirer and creative rival.
masterpiece
1901 Trois Pommes
Goulandris Foundation
The painting commonly referred to as "Trois pommes" (or more fully "Still Life With Apples" / "Nature morte aux pommes") by Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) was a landmark auction sale in Paris.
The 1957 Sale
On June 14, 1957, at the Galerie Charpentier in Paris (a major venue for important sales at the time), this late still life—painted around 1901 during Gauguin’s final years in the Marquesas Islands—sold for 104,000,000 old French francs.
Auctioneer and Context
Maurice Rheims (1910–2003), the prominent French auctioneer, art historian, and writer, presided over or was closely associated with many high-profile sales at Parisian venues like the Hôtel Drouot and Galerie Charpentier during this period. He was a key figure in the mid-20th-century European art market, known for modernizing and internationalizing auctions in France. While some records highlight the Galerie Charpentier as the venue, Rheims’s involvement in major Paris sales of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works from that era aligns with your recollection of him conducting or overseeing the event.
Additional Details on the Painting
This 1957 result was a breakthrough moment for Post-Impressionist prices, similar to how the 1965 Rembrandt Titus portrait (which you mentioned earlier) marked a milestone for Old Masters. Gauguin auction records have since climbed far higher—e.g., Tahitian figure paintings reaching tens or even hundreds of millions in later decades—but in its day, the “Trois pommes” sale was sensational.
These mid-20th-century Paris sales often had a dramatic, theatrical quality under auctioneers like Rheims, which is why they linger in collectors’ memories.
Ownership and Provenance Since 1957
The painting entered the private collection of Basil Goulandris (and later associated with Basil & Elise Goulandris) and has remained there or within the Goulandris family/foundation ever since. It has not reappeared at public auction in the decades following the 1957 sale.
The painting remains in private hands within the Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation or associated collection in Greece. It has not been sold publicly again, consistent with many high-profile works from important private foundations that are occasionally lent for exhibitions but rarely enter the open market. No major resale, deaccession, or ownership transfer has been publicly documented since 1957.
Context and Significance
This still life is one of Gauguin’s rarer late works from his final years in the Pacific (1901–1903), reflecting his continued engagement with simple, symbolic arrangements and color experimentation even amid personal hardship. Its 1957 price was groundbreaking at the time but has since been far surpassed by other Gauguin works (e.g., major Tahitian figure paintings reaching tens or hundreds of millions in later decades). The dramatic bidding story contributed to its place in art-market lore, alongside other mid-20th-century record sales.Note that Gauguin painted several still lifes involving apples or fruit across his career (e.g., 1889–1890 examples in museums or other private collections), but the "Trois pommes" / Biddle-Goulandris one is specifically the 1901 late-period work from the 1957 sale.
The relevant Wikimedia page is the Commons file for the painting (also known as Nature morte aux pamplemousses / Still Life with Grapefruits, previously titled Nature morte aux pommes et fleurs or similar variants referring to apples/flowers):
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PaulGauguin-1901-Still_Life_with_Grapefruits.png
commons.wikimedia.org
This matches the landmark 14 June 1957 sale at Galerie Charpentier in Paris (lot 21 from the Margaret Thompson Biddle collection), where it fetched a record ~104 million francs (~$297,000) to Basil Goulandris (amid bidding against Stavros Niarchos). It is now in the Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation collection in Athens.
The title discrepancy arises from historical misidentification of the fruit depicted.
The painting sold at the landmark Galerie Charpentier auction on 14 June 1957 (from the Margaret Thompson Biddle collection, lot 21, for a then-record ~104 million francs / ~$297,000 to Basil Goulandris) is the same work. Contemporary reports, including the New Yorker account, referred to it simply as Gauguin’s “Still-Life with Apples.”
For many years it was known under variants such as Nature morte aux pommes et fleurs(“Still Life with Apples and Flowers”) or similar “apples” titles. This is explicitly noted by the current owner (Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation): “It is believed that Gauguin painted Still life with grapefruits, which for many years was entitled Still life with apples and flowers...”
Later scholarly consensus (reflected in the Wildenstein catalogue raisonné as W.631 and modern references) correctly identified the fruit as pamplemousses (grapefruits/pomelos), leading to the standardized title Nature morte aux pamplemousses (Still Life with Grapefruits), dated c. 1901–1902. Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata (Q52268439) list both titles: Nature morte aux pamplemousses, ou Nature morte aux pommes et fleurs.
“Trois pommes” (Three Apples) does not appear as a documented title for this specific work; it was likely a shorthand, approximation, or slight misremembering of the older “apples” designation in secondary accounts of the famous 1957 sale. Other Gauguin still lifes do feature apples more prominently (e.g., Nature morte aux pommes of 1890 or 1895), which may have contributed to the confusion.
The 1957 Sale
On June 14, 1957, at the Galerie Charpentier in Paris (a major venue for important sales at the time), this late still life—painted around 1901 during Gauguin’s final years in the Marquesas Islands—sold for 104,000,000 old French francs.
- This equated to approximately $297,000 at the official exchange rate, or about $255,000 at the prevailing free-market rate.
- It was part of the collection of the late Mrs. Margaret Thompson Biddle (an American collector).
- The buyer was Basil Goulandris, a Greek shipping magnate (with intense competition from another Greek shipowner, Stavros Niarchos, which drove the price up dramatically).
Auctioneer and Context
Maurice Rheims (1910–2003), the prominent French auctioneer, art historian, and writer, presided over or was closely associated with many high-profile sales at Parisian venues like the Hôtel Drouot and Galerie Charpentier during this period. He was a key figure in the mid-20th-century European art market, known for modernizing and internationalizing auctions in France. While some records highlight the Galerie Charpentier as the venue, Rheims’s involvement in major Paris sales of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works from that era aligns with your recollection of him conducting or overseeing the event.
Additional Details on the Painting
- Gauguin’s late still lifes from his Pacific period are relatively rare compared to his iconic Tahitian figure scenes. This one features a simple arrangement of apples (sometimes described with grapes or other elements in variant titles/references), reflecting his continued experimentation with color, form, and symbolic simplicity even in isolation and poor health.
- The bidding war between wealthy collectors underscored the growing international demand for Gauguin in the 1950s, as his reputation as a pioneer of modern art (with influences on Fauvism, Expressionism, etc.) solidified.
This 1957 result was a breakthrough moment for Post-Impressionist prices, similar to how the 1965 Rembrandt Titus portrait (which you mentioned earlier) marked a milestone for Old Masters. Gauguin auction records have since climbed far higher—e.g., Tahitian figure paintings reaching tens or even hundreds of millions in later decades—but in its day, the “Trois pommes” sale was sensational.
These mid-20th-century Paris sales often had a dramatic, theatrical quality under auctioneers like Rheims, which is why they linger in collectors’ memories.
Ownership and Provenance Since 1957
The painting entered the private collection of Basil Goulandris (and later associated with Basil & Elise Goulandris) and has remained there or within the Goulandris family/foundation ever since. It has not reappeared at public auction in the decades following the 1957 sale.
- It has been catalogued and exhibited under varying titles reflecting evolving scholarship: early references called it a still life with apples; later analysis identified the central fruits as grapefruits (pamplemousses), painted on a leather trunk in Gauguin’s studio during a period of illness when he was largely confined and drawing on Cézanne-inspired still-life traditions.
- The work has been lent to exhibitions, including at institutions linked to the Goulandris holdings, such as the Museum of Contemporary Art, Andros (part of the Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation in Greece).
- It forms part of the broader Goulandris collection of Impressionist and modern masters, much of which has been housed in or associated with their foundation’s museums in Greece (e.g., Athens and Andros). The family’s collecting activities continued prominently after Basil’s acquisition, with the 1957 Gauguin marking his notable debut as a major international buyer.
The painting remains in private hands within the Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation or associated collection in Greece. It has not been sold publicly again, consistent with many high-profile works from important private foundations that are occasionally lent for exhibitions but rarely enter the open market. No major resale, deaccession, or ownership transfer has been publicly documented since 1957.
Context and Significance
This still life is one of Gauguin’s rarer late works from his final years in the Pacific (1901–1903), reflecting his continued engagement with simple, symbolic arrangements and color experimentation even amid personal hardship. Its 1957 price was groundbreaking at the time but has since been far surpassed by other Gauguin works (e.g., major Tahitian figure paintings reaching tens or hundreds of millions in later decades). The dramatic bidding story contributed to its place in art-market lore, alongside other mid-20th-century record sales.Note that Gauguin painted several still lifes involving apples or fruit across his career (e.g., 1889–1890 examples in museums or other private collections), but the "Trois pommes" / Biddle-Goulandris one is specifically the 1901 late-period work from the 1957 sale.
The relevant Wikimedia page is the Commons file for the painting (also known as Nature morte aux pamplemousses / Still Life with Grapefruits, previously titled Nature morte aux pommes et fleurs or similar variants referring to apples/flowers):
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PaulGauguin-1901-Still_Life_with_Grapefruits.png
commons.wikimedia.org
This matches the landmark 14 June 1957 sale at Galerie Charpentier in Paris (lot 21 from the Margaret Thompson Biddle collection), where it fetched a record ~104 million francs (~$297,000) to Basil Goulandris (amid bidding against Stavros Niarchos). It is now in the Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation collection in Athens.
The title discrepancy arises from historical misidentification of the fruit depicted.
The painting sold at the landmark Galerie Charpentier auction on 14 June 1957 (from the Margaret Thompson Biddle collection, lot 21, for a then-record ~104 million francs / ~$297,000 to Basil Goulandris) is the same work. Contemporary reports, including the New Yorker account, referred to it simply as Gauguin’s “Still-Life with Apples.”
For many years it was known under variants such as Nature morte aux pommes et fleurs(“Still Life with Apples and Flowers”) or similar “apples” titles. This is explicitly noted by the current owner (Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation): “It is believed that Gauguin painted Still life with grapefruits, which for many years was entitled Still life with apples and flowers...”
Later scholarly consensus (reflected in the Wildenstein catalogue raisonné as W.631 and modern references) correctly identified the fruit as pamplemousses (grapefruits/pomelos), leading to the standardized title Nature morte aux pamplemousses (Still Life with Grapefruits), dated c. 1901–1902. Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata (Q52268439) list both titles: Nature morte aux pamplemousses, ou Nature morte aux pommes et fleurs.
“Trois pommes” (Three Apples) does not appear as a documented title for this specific work; it was likely a shorthand, approximation, or slight misremembering of the older “apples” designation in secondary accounts of the famous 1957 sale. Other Gauguin still lifes do feature apples more prominently (e.g., Nature morte aux pommes of 1890 or 1895), which may have contributed to the confusion.
1911 Les Coucous, tapis bleu et rose by Matisse
2009 SOLD for € 36M by Christie's
Born in northern France, Henri Matisse very early visited the local weaving workshops. Throughout his life, he will be a creator of forms on the most varied supports, overlapping figuration and abstraction.
Fauvism is a short but decisive phase during which he experiences the power of pure colors. Seeking exotic solutions, he travels to Algeria in 1906 and spends two months in Spain in 1910 studying Moorish art. At that time, collectors ahead of their time like Shchukin no longer support the traditional separation between art and decoration.
In 1910 in Madrid, Matisse bought in an antique shop a two-tone rug in fairly poor condition, whose arabesques were naturalistic without being identifiable. He was seduced by the expressive force of this anonymous textile, close by chance to the new style that he had developed for La Danse in 1909.
By varying the colors, he uses his rug as a decorative element in several paintings. In L'Atelier rose, oil on canvas 180 x 221 cm painted for Shchukin in 1911, it is spread over the large screen.
Les coucous - tapis bleu et rose, oil on canvas 81 x 66 cm painted in spring 1911, appears as a preparatory work for L'Atelier rose. On the table, the vase of primroses (coucous) is the pretext for this image, but the rug used as a tablecloth is indeed the main theme by its invitation to abstraction. The turquoise wall at the back is enhanced with pink reflections.
Yves Saint-Laurent saw in the image of this fabric a precursor to his own work. This painting which offers a link between two great designers went to be the most expensive lot of the sale of his collection by Christie's on February 23, 2009 : it was sold for € 36M from a lower estimate of € 12M, lot 55. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Grok thought :
Quote
DailyArt @DailyArtApp May 6, 2021
Henri Matisse (1869-1954), ‘Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose’, 1911 Christie’s
Fauvism is a short but decisive phase during which he experiences the power of pure colors. Seeking exotic solutions, he travels to Algeria in 1906 and spends two months in Spain in 1910 studying Moorish art. At that time, collectors ahead of their time like Shchukin no longer support the traditional separation between art and decoration.
In 1910 in Madrid, Matisse bought in an antique shop a two-tone rug in fairly poor condition, whose arabesques were naturalistic without being identifiable. He was seduced by the expressive force of this anonymous textile, close by chance to the new style that he had developed for La Danse in 1909.
By varying the colors, he uses his rug as a decorative element in several paintings. In L'Atelier rose, oil on canvas 180 x 221 cm painted for Shchukin in 1911, it is spread over the large screen.
Les coucous - tapis bleu et rose, oil on canvas 81 x 66 cm painted in spring 1911, appears as a preparatory work for L'Atelier rose. On the table, the vase of primroses (coucous) is the pretext for this image, but the rug used as a tablecloth is indeed the main theme by its invitation to abstraction. The turquoise wall at the back is enhanced with pink reflections.
Yves Saint-Laurent saw in the image of this fabric a precursor to his own work. This painting which offers a link between two great designers went to be the most expensive lot of the sale of his collection by Christie's on February 23, 2009 : it was sold for € 36M from a lower estimate of € 12M, lot 55. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Grok thought :
Quote
DailyArt @DailyArtApp May 6, 2021
Henri Matisse (1869-1954), ‘Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose’, 1911 Christie’s
- This 2021 post from DailyArtApp highlights Henri Matisse's 1911 oil painting "Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose," a Fauvist still life featuring vibrant yellow flowers in a blue vase against patterned textiles, exemplifying his bold color experimentation.
- Created during Matisse's Nice period, the work draws from floral and fabric motifs, was acquired directly from the artist by Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, and later sold for $46 million at Christie's in 2009, underscoring its significance in modern art markets.
- Exhibited in landmark shows like London's 1912 Second Post-Impressionist Exhibition, the painting reflects Matisse's influence on 20th-century design, with peer-reviewed analyses noting its role in bridging Fauvism and decorative arts.
Compare Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose (1911), sold by Christie's on February 23, 2009, lot 55, to The Red Studio.
Henri Matisse's Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose (1911, oil on canvas, 81 x 65.5 cm; also translated as Cowslips, Blue and Pink Carpet) and The Red Studio (1911, oil on canvas, 181 x 219 cm, MoMA, New York) are contemporaneous masterpieces from the same pivotal year, both exploring color, pattern, and flattened space in Matisse's post-Fauvist evolution. Les coucous—from the collection of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, sold at Christie's Paris on February 23, 2009 (lot 55) for a record €36 million—was a still life inspired by textiles and flowers, while The Red Studio (originally The Pink Studio or L'Atelier Rose) depicts the artist's workspace in Issy-les-Moulineaux.
Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose features a vibrant still life with yellow cowslip flowers in a vase on a patterned blue-and-pink textile, against a turquoise wall with subtle pink undertones and decorative elements like stripes and a small framed landscape.
The Red Studio immerses the viewer in a sea of Venetian red, with outlined furniture, sculptures, and Matisse's own artworks floating in the space.
Similarities
Henri Matisse's Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose (1911, oil on canvas, 81 x 65.5 cm; also translated as Cowslips, Blue and Pink Carpet) and The Red Studio (1911, oil on canvas, 181 x 219 cm, MoMA, New York) are contemporaneous masterpieces from the same pivotal year, both exploring color, pattern, and flattened space in Matisse's post-Fauvist evolution. Les coucous—from the collection of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, sold at Christie's Paris on February 23, 2009 (lot 55) for a record €36 million—was a still life inspired by textiles and flowers, while The Red Studio (originally The Pink Studio or L'Atelier Rose) depicts the artist's workspace in Issy-les-Moulineaux.
Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose features a vibrant still life with yellow cowslip flowers in a vase on a patterned blue-and-pink textile, against a turquoise wall with subtle pink undertones and decorative elements like stripes and a small framed landscape.
The Red Studio immerses the viewer in a sea of Venetian red, with outlined furniture, sculptures, and Matisse's own artworks floating in the space.
Similarities
- Year and Context: Both painted in spring/fall 1911, during Matisse's intense experimentation with pure color and textiles (influenced by his "library" of fabrics). They reflect his shift toward decorative harmony and emotional expression over realism.
- Flattened Perspective and Pattern: Space is compressed; boundaries blur via bold, hard-edged color planes and arabesques. Patterns (floral/textile motifs) unify the surface, creating rhythm and balance.
- Color Liberation: Color is autonomous—expressive rather than descriptive. Matisse reportedly reversed pink and turquoise schemes in Les coucous for vibrancy, echoing his bold overpainting in studio works.
- Connection to Larger Works: Les coucous is explicitly described as a "companion" or "blueprint" to The Pink Studio (the initial version of The Red Studio), clarifying chaotic creative processes through lucid, balanced composition. Both tie into commissions for Sergei Shchukin and Matisse's interest in symphonic decorative panels.
- Subject and Composition:
- Les coucous: Intimate still life—yellow cowslips (coucous) in a vase atop a richly patterned blue-pink carpet/textile, set against a turquoise-pink wall. It's serene, decorative, and object-focused, evoking luxury and equilibrium.
- The Red Studio: Meta-interior of the artist's studio, filled with his own paintings, sculptures, furniture, and objects (e.g., open crayon box). No central still life; it's self-referential, depicting the act of creation.
- Color Dominance and Radicality:
- Les coucous: Harmonious interplay of turquoise, pink, blue, and yellow accents—balanced and lucid, with contrasting patterns for dynamic yet soothing effect.
- The Red Studio: Radical monochrome—nearly everything flooded in intense Venetian red, dissolving depth into a flat, immersive "void." Outlines (in yellow/green) define forms against the red, asserting pure abstraction and color's emotional power.
- Scale and Ambition:
- Les coucous: Smaller, more contained; a refined experiment in textile-inspired still life.
- The Red Studio: Monumental; a breakthrough in modernism, anticipating abstraction (influencing Abstract Expressionists like Mark Rothko). Matisse himself noted its "abstraction" despite representational elements.
1915 Nature Morte à la Nappe à Carreaux by Gris
2014 SOLD for £ 35M by Christie's
The Cubism of Juan Gris experienced a rapid and powerful development. At first, the analysis of forms is deconstructing the figurative subject. The loss of the third dimension leads to collages.
In 1915, the art of Gris suddenly separates from Picasso and Braque. Gris gathers the objects of his everyday life. Arranged on the table, they make up his universe. Outside, in Paris, it is war. His objects are playing to constitute a new theater, like Cézanne's apples or Arcimboldo's vegetables.
In this sense, Gris is a precursor of surrealism. Painted in March 1915, Nature morte à la nappe à carreaux is a complex and colored composition, where the arrangement in a triangle forms a mask over the comforting support of the tabletop.
Times are hard for Juan Gris in the wartime Paris of 1915. His German dealer Kahnweiler had to flee to Bern and cannot support him directly. Being in civilian attire while the young men are serving on the front, he is booed by the Parisians when walking by the streets. His output is prolific, for earning his life.
The Galerie L'Effort Moderne of Léonce Rosenberg took over Kahnweiler for Gris in early 1915. Nature morte à la nappe à carreaux was acquired by Rosenberg.
This oil on canvas 116 x 90 cm, was sold for £ 35M from a lower estimate of £ 12M by Christie's on February 4, 2014, lot 9. Please watch the video shared by Christie's. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Grok thought :
Quote
Fadhlaoui @Fadhlaoui2 Feb 19
Bonjour.#NatureMorte #thème #Juan_Gris,_1915,_Nature_morte_à_la_nappe_à_carreaux_(Still_Life_with_Checked_Tablecloth),_oil_on_canvas,_116.5_x_89.3_cm
In 1915, the art of Gris suddenly separates from Picasso and Braque. Gris gathers the objects of his everyday life. Arranged on the table, they make up his universe. Outside, in Paris, it is war. His objects are playing to constitute a new theater, like Cézanne's apples or Arcimboldo's vegetables.
In this sense, Gris is a precursor of surrealism. Painted in March 1915, Nature morte à la nappe à carreaux is a complex and colored composition, where the arrangement in a triangle forms a mask over the comforting support of the tabletop.
Times are hard for Juan Gris in the wartime Paris of 1915. His German dealer Kahnweiler had to flee to Bern and cannot support him directly. Being in civilian attire while the young men are serving on the front, he is booed by the Parisians when walking by the streets. His output is prolific, for earning his life.
The Galerie L'Effort Moderne of Léonce Rosenberg took over Kahnweiler for Gris in early 1915. Nature morte à la nappe à carreaux was acquired by Rosenberg.
This oil on canvas 116 x 90 cm, was sold for £ 35M from a lower estimate of £ 12M by Christie's on February 4, 2014, lot 9. Please watch the video shared by Christie's. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Grok thought :
Quote
Fadhlaoui @Fadhlaoui2 Feb 19
Bonjour.#NatureMorte #thème #Juan_Gris,_1915,_Nature_morte_à_la_nappe_à_carreaux_(Still_Life_with_Checked_Tablecloth),_oil_on_canvas,_116.5_x_89.3_cm
- This X post launches a thread exploring still life (#NatureMorte) artworks, beginning with Juan Gris's 1915 synthetic cubist painting "Still Life with Checked Tablecloth," housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and notable for its direct application of oil and graphite without a ground layer, blending geometric abstraction with everyday objects like grapes and a newspaper.
- The thread progresses through contrasting styles: Bernard Buffet's stark post-war expressionism, Henri Matisse's 1909 blue-toned Fauvist harmony, Jean-Siméon Chardin's 18th-century Rococo strawberry basket emphasizing light and texture, and Roy Lichtenstein's 1974 pop art lobster reinterpreting cubism via comic-book aesthetics.
- Posted by @Fadhlaoui2, a French art education account (Arts Plastiques), the series serves as a visual timeline of the still life genre's evolution, from classical realism to modernism, with minimal engagement indicating targeted sharing among art history enthusiasts rather than broad viral appeal.
,_oil_on_canvas,_116.5_x_89.3_cm.jpg)
PICASSO
1
1919 Guitare sur une Table
2022 SOLD for $ 37M by Sotheby's
Guitar on a tabletop was a preferred theme of the Cubist pioneers, Gris, Picasso and Braque. In 1919 war is over and the synthetic phase of Cubism is giving way to the Neoclassicism.
Under the influence of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, Picasso continues in both styles with dynamic pure colors, as demonstrated by a pair of portraits of Olga started simultaneously ca 1917 of which the Cubist version was sold for $ 30.5M by Christie's on May 15, 2017, lot 7 A.
Guitare sur une table painted by Picasso in 1919 in Paris is a mixed style in which the mandolin shaped instrument is displayed beside a sheet of staves in a flattened trompe l'oeil that includes a joyful blue sky through a window.
This oil on canvas 100 x 81 cm was sold for $ 37M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2022, lot 108, for the benefit of the MoMA and of charities.
Grok thought :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys Nov 15, 2022
#AuctionUpdate: In its auction debut, Pablo Picasso’s ‘Guitare sur une table’ achieves a staggering $37.1 million tonight. This rare Cubist painting has been in the private collection of William S. Paley since 1946. #SothebysModern
Under the influence of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, Picasso continues in both styles with dynamic pure colors, as demonstrated by a pair of portraits of Olga started simultaneously ca 1917 of which the Cubist version was sold for $ 30.5M by Christie's on May 15, 2017, lot 7 A.
Guitare sur une table painted by Picasso in 1919 in Paris is a mixed style in which the mandolin shaped instrument is displayed beside a sheet of staves in a flattened trompe l'oeil that includes a joyful blue sky through a window.
This oil on canvas 100 x 81 cm was sold for $ 37M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2022, lot 108, for the benefit of the MoMA and of charities.
Grok thought :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys Nov 15, 2022
#AuctionUpdate: In its auction debut, Pablo Picasso’s ‘Guitare sur une table’ achieves a staggering $37.1 million tonight. This rare Cubist painting has been in the private collection of William S. Paley since 1946. #SothebysModern
- Picasso's 1919 Synthetic Cubist painting 'Guitare sur une table' fetched $37.1 million at Sotheby's Modern Evening Auction on November 14, 2022, surpassing its $20-30 million estimate in its auction debut after 76 years in William S. Paley's collection.
- The work, on long-term loan to the Museum of Modern Art for three decades, exemplifies Picasso's bold use of vivid colors and geometric fragmentation to depict everyday objects, bridging Analytic and Synthetic Cubism phases.
- This sale underscored the enduring market strength for Picasso's Cubist output, contributing to Sotheby's $473 million total for the evening and ranking among the top modern art transactions of 2022.
2
1932 Nature Morte à la Fenêtre
2023 SOLD for $ 42M by Christie's
In 1931 at Boisgeloup Picasso was busy as a sculptor, expressing the face shape of his secret muse Marie-Thérèse. Olga, who spent the week-ends with Pablo at Boisgeloup, apparently did not suspect at that time that Boisgeloup housed a rival during the week.
Paintings follow. In a first phase the woman is expressed by the profile of her white sculpture on a plinth. In La Lampe, completed in June 1931, the bust is positioned behind the door of the studio. The profile is still much stylized without detail in the hair.
La Lampe was certainly made in view of the groundbreaking retrospective that will open in June 1932 at Galerie Georges Petit, where it was included. If this is the case, the artist had already conceived at that early stage the evolution of a series into the representation of his muse as a human being and then as an erotic nude with the evidence that Olga will be shocked. La Lampe was sold for $ 29.6M by Christie's on November 11, 2018, lot 22A.
His paintings of December 1931 dared to introduce recognizable features including the blonde hair and the rounded rosy cheeks.
Painted on January 18, 1932, Nature morte à la fenêtre again belongs to the intermediate phase. It features the white oversized bust in full profile with a well defined hair beside a tabletop with leaves of philodendron in a vase and a plate of fruit. The philodendron is a symbol of vitality. The window behind is certainly that of the sculpture studio.
This oil on canvas 130 x 162 cm was one of the 18 works of 1932 exhibited at Georges Petit. It was sold for $ 42M by Christie's on May 11, 2023, lot 42A.
Grok thought :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc May 12, 2023
#AuctionUpdate: From our 20th Century Evening Sale, Pablo Picasso’s 'Nature morte à la fenêtre' realizes $41,810,000
Paintings follow. In a first phase the woman is expressed by the profile of her white sculpture on a plinth. In La Lampe, completed in June 1931, the bust is positioned behind the door of the studio. The profile is still much stylized without detail in the hair.
La Lampe was certainly made in view of the groundbreaking retrospective that will open in June 1932 at Galerie Georges Petit, where it was included. If this is the case, the artist had already conceived at that early stage the evolution of a series into the representation of his muse as a human being and then as an erotic nude with the evidence that Olga will be shocked. La Lampe was sold for $ 29.6M by Christie's on November 11, 2018, lot 22A.
His paintings of December 1931 dared to introduce recognizable features including the blonde hair and the rounded rosy cheeks.
Painted on January 18, 1932, Nature morte à la fenêtre again belongs to the intermediate phase. It features the white oversized bust in full profile with a well defined hair beside a tabletop with leaves of philodendron in a vase and a plate of fruit. The philodendron is a symbol of vitality. The window behind is certainly that of the sculpture studio.
This oil on canvas 130 x 162 cm was one of the 18 works of 1932 exhibited at Georges Petit. It was sold for $ 42M by Christie's on May 11, 2023, lot 42A.
Grok thought :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc May 12, 2023
#AuctionUpdate: From our 20th Century Evening Sale, Pablo Picasso’s 'Nature morte à la fenêtre' realizes $41,810,000
- This post announces the $41.8 million sale of Pablo Picasso's 1932 oil painting Nature morte à la fenêtre at Christie's 20th Century Evening Sale, exceeding its $40 million estimate and marking it as the auction's top lot amid a surge in modernist art demand.
- The work, painted during Picasso's obsessive neoclassical phase inspired by his muse Marie-Thérèse Walter—depicted as a white bust—blends still life elements like green philodendrons and peaches with a window view, symbolizing intimacy and voyeurism in his personal life.
- The painting's high price reflects its rarity on the market, last exhibited publicly in 1970, and underscores how biographical narratives drive value in Picasso's prolific output of over 45,000 works.
