A jug, two pots, and seven apples nestled on a a patterned tablecloth are the subject of this still life, but the painting explores more. Close looking provides a lesson in the painter’s technique. Start with the surface of the apples. Using small patches of color laid next to one another, Cézanne built up their form like a bricklayer would build a structure. He paints yellow undertones, then outlines the apples with red arcs; the empty middle suggests light reflecting off the surface. Curving brushstrokes compose the tablecloth, and the background wall isn’t a wall at all but a dancing array of vigorous blue and green marks.

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