Description
Cherries and Peaches – a still life that will not stand still
Cherries and Peaches is one of the most popular of Cézanne’s still lifes and an excellent example of what the painter is known for: a table that tilts towards the viewer, a plate we see from the side and from above at once, and fruit more solid than the dish it lies in. The canvas is held by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Our hand-painted reproduction on canvas brings this warm subject into your home, painted in oil on canvas.
Why the table is not straight
Cézanne did not paint the scene from a single point. We often see a bowl or a plate somewhat from above and the edge of the table from the side – and when the edge of the table fails to line up on the two sides of the cloth, that is not a mistake but a consequence of the painter having rendered each part of the scene as he saw it at the moment he was looking at it. This “wrong” perspective later became the starting point of the Cubists.
Fruit that had to last
Cézanne worked slowly – he could spend several weeks on a single still life. Anecdotes say the fruit rotted while he worked and that he occasionally reached for wax substitutes; this is a story repeated by biographers rather than a note of the painter’s own. The solidity you see in these peaches was certainly not painted quickly: each one is built from a run of small planes of colour that give it weight.
Fruit that has weight
In the photographs above you can see our hand-painted reproduction of this painting. The peaches on this canvas are built from small planes that give them weight; print flattens them. That is why we paint by hand, in oil on canvas. Ten sizes or a size to your measurements. The subject rewards a kitchen or a dining room. Choose the frame with the help of our app’s 3D preview. Among our reproductions on canvas you will find Cézanne’s other still lifes: Still Life with a Curtain, Still Life with an Open Drawer and Still Life with Plaster Cast.
- Subject: Cherries and Peaches, Paul Cézanne, 1885–1887, LACMA, Los Angeles
- Technique: hand-painted painting, oil on canvas, reproduction
- Sizes: 10 formats, stretched on a wooden stretcher frame on request, or made to your measurements
- Fact: the deliberately “wrong” perspective of this still life later became a starting point for Cubism
