Paul Cézanne

Plate of Fruit on a Chair (Assiette de fruits sur une chaise)

1879–1880
Oil on canvas
20.7 × 37.2 cm (8.1 × 14.6 in)

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● On view now — Collection Gallery, Room 02, West Wall

Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia · verified July 2026

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FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG

Six green-and-orange pears are stacked on a plate, set in turn upon a rush-seated chair. The chair appears nearly vertical; the pears threaten to roll out of the picture. Cézanne believed that everyday objects had a certain inner force that our gazes bring to life. Perhaps this worldview partly explains his distorted pictorial structures, in which things like pears can move and mean improbably.

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