# The Basket of Apples

**Paul Cézanne** (French, 1839–1906)  
c. 1893  
Oil on canvas  
65 × 80 cm (25 7/16 × 31 1/2 in.); Framed: 88 × 104.2 × 9.6 cm (34 5/8 × 41 × 3 3/4 in.)

Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1926.252. [The museum's record](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/111436).

## About this work

A basket of green and red-yellow apples tips forward onto a rumpled white cloth, beside a leaning dark green bottle and a plate of stacked biscuits. Look at the table: its front edge does not line up from one side of the cloth to the other, and the bottle and basket seem to be seen from different angles. Cézanne deliberately combined viewpoints and adjusted forms to balance the whole composition, setting aside the single fixed perspective that had governed painting since the Renaissance. This quietly radical approach to still life became a starting point for the Cubists.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

Paul Cézanne painted this in about 1893, aged about 48. It is now at the Art Institute of Chicago.

### What you’re looking at

Painting of a basket of green and red-yellow apples spilling over into a white cloth placed on a wooden table, with a dark green bottle and a plate of pale biscuits behind.

_Description from the Art Institute of Chicago._

### How it was made

- **Oil paint.** Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.

### [Paul Cézanne](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/paul-cezanne)

French, 1839–1906; born in Aix-en-Provence; died in Aix-en-Provence

Cézanne divided his life between Paris and his native Aix-en-Provence. Encouraged by his schoolfriend Émile Zola and later by Pissarro, with whom he painted at Pontoise and Auvers in the 1870s, he showed at the first and third Impressionist exhibitions. He then withdrew to Provence and worked towards a more structured art, building form from patches of colour in still lifes, bathers and repeated views of Mont Sainte-Victoire. Younger painters, Picasso and Braque among them, saw him as a founder of modern painting.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Painting
- Culture: France
- The artist was about 48
- Real size: about 26 × 31 in (65 × 80 cm). The 20 × 30 in print is close to life size.
- Century: 19th century
- Movement: [Post-Impressionism](https://www.ochreeditions.com/movements/post-impressionism)
- Subjects: still life, apples, basket, bottles, Bread, table, tablecloth, food
- Colour: brown
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/282.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/282/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68; 20 × 30 in $86; 24 × 36 in $108; 30 × 40 in $148
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164; 20 × 30 in $208; 24 × 36 in $258; 30 × 40 in $338
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118; 20 × 30 in $148; 24 × 36 in $178; 30 × 40 in $228
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3; 20 × 30 in $5; 24 × 36 in $5; 30 × 40 in $5

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/the-basket-of-apples-aic-111436).