The Vase of Tulips

The table in this still life of flowers and fruit appears in several of Paul Cézanne’s other paintings, although scholars do not agree about which of the artist’s residences housed this piece of furniture. As is typical of his work, the painting is carefully considered and hard-won, especially in the tense spatial relationships between objects. The traces of at least three other pieces of fruit (presumably oranges) at lower left bear witness to Cézanne’s changing opinion as he struggled to make the composition work. (Source: Art Institute of Chicago)