Two apples FWN 723 1875 15cm x 24
“Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.” Pissarro
The famous quote above from Pissarro is echoed in the words Cezanne uses to describe his friend and mentor: “the humble and colossal Pissarro”. Even amongst all the rushed uproar that the Impressionist Exhibitions caused, the angry trill of the critics of the day, the arrogant dismissal that was the response of the Art Establishment, Pissarro and Cezanne seem to be grounded in the humble.
I want to suggest that this shared grounding was not dependent on their success, or lack of it. Just after the first Impressionist Exhibition in 1874, the director of the Museum in Aix, Monsieur Granet, invited himself to see Cezanne at work in Aix, writing to Cezanne thus: “I shall be able to appreciate much better the dangers threatening Painting after seeing your attempts on its life”. The people of Provence knew how the people of Paris thought that all the world revolved around them: Monsieur Granet encouraged Cezanne to persevere. I suggest, not because Monsieur Granet beheld in Cezanne’s work, a classical excellence, but because he beheld a humble reverence before nature.
This painting - the size of a large post card - is more interesting because it shows us how Cezanne is developing his art: the colours he is using, and how he is wondering about how to introduce light into the painting. You can imagine Cezanne taking a rest from a larger work, and painting the two apples in his lunch hour.
Two apples and a glass FWN 725 TA 1877 20cm x 18
The second of these three little paintings, with nearly the same title as the first, was painted a couple of years after the first. It is given the dreaded designation in the Catalogue Raisonne of ‘TA’, Traditionally Attributed (to Cezanne). What’s even worse, it’s classified as ‘of unknown whereabouts’. All the paintings in the Catalogue Raisonne have been verified by inspection; where a particular painting has not been, it’s usually because it’s in a ‘Private Collection’. So with a TA and a whereabouts unknown, it’s probably still worth buying if you see it in a Charity Shop going cheap; just don’t assume you’ll be able to retire on it! I could not find a copy or anything of this painting, and that’s why the reproduction here is so bad. It doesn’t look like a Cezanne, but in real life – you never know about its authenticity!
Two and a half apples FWN 757 1879 16.5cm x 10
“The unifying continuous weft of slanting parallel brush strokes, counteracts only in part the breaks occasioned by faulty colour-relations in several areas of the painting. For example, in the apple in the foreground, the area of shadow appears disjointed from its adjacent colour-area; in the colour-relations between the two other pieces of fruit, the contrast between the dark red and the bright yellow tends towards a disturbing clash” wrote A. Barnes and V de Mazia.
To you and me, that means: the colours don’t look right!
In giving up on modelling (using darker and lighter shades of the same colour), Cezanne compensated in two ways: he painted stuff – in this case – apples, using little brush strokes of differently coloured paints. You can see clearly how he does this. But secondly, he then has to harmonize all the colours he sees and uses, into an overall integration; so that the painting as a whole looks good, integrates as a whole. And yea, the yellow apple looks a bit funny against the red one.
It’s ‘work in progress’. The above mentioned Dr Barnes, (of the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia) was still willing to pay a handsome price for the little painting (2000 francs a 100 years ago) because, even though he thought it was not one of Cezanne’s best, he did not doubt its authenticity!
We come to understand that there are two ways that the word ‘authentic’ is being used: the most common indicates that the work of art was actually done by the famous artist; it’s not a fake.
The second meaning, more profound, is to indicate the ‘spirit’ of the work; the expression of the spirit may vary, indeed grow and develop. But the spirit subsists through-out that process of development: and for Pissarro and Cezanne, the spirit abides in humble reverence before nature.
“What you encounter, recognize or discover depends to a large degree on the quality of your approach. Many of the ancient cultures practiced careful rituals of approach. An encounter of depth and spirit was preceded by careful preparation.
When we approach with reverence, great things decide to approach us. Our real life comes to the surface and its light awakens the concealed beauty in things. When we walk on the earth with reverence, beauty will decide to trust us. The rushed heart and arrogant mind lack the gentleness and patience to enter that embrace.”
― John O'Donohue: Beauty, the invisible embrace
It’s such a good practice to start the day with reverence, and to end the day with gratitude; and if you can’t, then it’s ‘work in progress’. Wherever you find yourself: no blame, no shame, just developing!