The Basket of Apples

保罗·塞尚曾声称，艺术是与自然平行的和谐，而不是对自然的模仿。在对底层结构和构图的探索中，他重新认识到艺术家并不一定要在真实的空间中表现真实的物体。因此，一篮苹果包含了他标志性的倾斜桌子，一个不可能有直角的矩形。在它上面，一篮苹果从一个板凳状的底座向前倾斜，看起来被瓶子和桌布厚厚的雕塑褶皱所平衡。厚重的造型、坚实的笔触和明亮的色彩赋予了这幅作品一种更逼真的静物画所无法拥有的密度和活力。这幅画是塞尚罕见的署名作品之一，是1895年巴黎艺术商人安布罗伊斯·沃尔拉德（Ambroise Vollard）敦促艺术家举办的一次重要展览的一部分。由于塞尚职业生涯的大部分时间都是在自己的家乡普罗旺斯与世隔绝地绘画，这是近20年来公众第一次有机会看到这位被誉为现代绘画之父的艺术家的作品。

Art, Paul Cézanne once claimed, is "a harmony running parallel to nature," not an imitation of nature. In his quest for underlying structure and composition, he recog-nized that the artist is not bound to represent real objects in real space. Thus, The Basket of Apples contains one of his signature tilted tables, an impossible rectangle with no right angles. On it, a basket of apples pitches forward from a slablike base, seemingly balanced by the bottle and the tablecloth’s thick, sculptural folds. The heavy modeling, solid brushstrokes, and glowing colors give the composition a density and dynamism that a more realistic still life could never possess. This painting, one of Cézanne’s rare signed works, was part of an important exhibition urged on the artist by the Parisian art dealer Ambroise Vollard in 1895. Since Cézanne had spent the majority of his career painting in isolation in his native Provence, this was the first opportunity in nearly twenty years for the public to see the work of the artist who is now hailed as the father of modern painting.