Still Life with Apples, Paul Cezanne

“Still Life with Apples” was painted by Paul Cezanne in 1890. It now hangs in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia. This still life of fruit, a plate and pot is one of 200 still lifes Cezanne painted over four decades. Each is an arrangement of fruit and common objects sometimes with fabric draped in grace and intention. This artist was very much about intention. He was known to arrange a composition, paint for hours, become dissatisfied, throw away the canvas, rearrange the objects and start again. With this dedication, he led artists to reconsider painting inside rather than outdoors and to reconsider painting more realistically as the Impressionist movement faded into the Post-Impressionist school. Cezanne also painted the considerations that would later become the Fauvism of Matisse and the Cubism of Picasso. He is called the father of modern painting.