“Table, Napkin and Fruit” is a renowned still life oil painting by Paul Cezanne, created around 1900. This artwork exemplifies the Post-Impressionist movement, known for its vivid colors, thick paint application, and real-life subject matter. Currently, the artwork is housed at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, where it continues to captivate audiences with its deconstructed perspective and rich textural details.
The artwork portrays a table setting featuring a casually draped white napkin with its folds and creases painstakingly depicted, creating a sense of softness against the solidity of the table. Resting on this napkin is a platter overflowing with fruit, detailed with varying shades of color that suggest volume and ripeness. Cezanne’s use of brushstrokes is characteristically deliberate; individual strokes can be discerned, contributing to the textured surface of the painting. The fruit exhibits a range of tones from greens and yellows to oranges and reds, implying the play of light and the depth of the fruits’ forms. The background appears to include a window with shutters and a glimpse of the greenery outside, juxtaposed with the domestic tranquility of the indoor scene. Overall, the composition’s dynamic tension between form and color, as well as its layered spatial construction, typify Cezanne’s influence on the progression from Impressionism to the various facets of modern art.
