Still Life with A Ginger Jar and Eggplants, Paul Cézanne, 1893-1894
By Mac
Still Life with A Ginger Jar and Eggplants, is a painting by French Post-Impressionist artist Paul Cézanne, created from 1893-1894. Cézanne employed multiple perspectives in this painting, subtly shifting viewpoints to explore the full nature of objects. This results in a slightly tilted and unstable spatial arrangement that challenges classic ideas of composition.
Cézanne used a rather limited palette, choosing primarily blues and greens with touches of red, purple, and yellow. The dominant cool tones create a cohesive atmosphere imbuing the scene with a calm and subtle energy. The highlights on the ginger jar and the reflective surfaces of the eggplants are conveyed through light strokes of white or lighter blue, providing contrast without harsh outlines. He allows the colors themselves to define volume and depth. Cézanne unifies the work through his restrained color choices and consistent use of geometric shapes. The warm tones of the fruit on the plate provide a focal point interrupting the cooler colors yet still harmonizing with them. Cézanne’s brushwork is visible, layered, and deliberate. The textured strokes in the background and in the textiles juxtapose the more refined handling of the jar, vase, and fruit.
The rounded shapes of the eggplants, fruits, jar, and vase, lend themselves to a sense of unity and rhythm across the surface. The diagonal placement of the eggplants contribute to a fluid motion. This rhythm is subtle but reinforces the organic nature of the still life. The textiles are not smoothed or idealized, this could be Cézanne’s way of placing the still life in a more honest, lived experience. The crumpled, overlapping textiles, and the seemingly precarious positioning of the plate of fruit exists to signify the messiness and impermanence of daily life. This sense of imbalance could symbolize how life is always on the verge of shifting.
In the same way Cézanne shows us multiple viewpoints, he’s showing us life as it happens. The physical functions in the metaphorical and vice versa. Cézanne sought to capture the underlying reality of life, which included embracing imperfection and instability.
I chose Still Life with A Ginger Jar and Eggplants because I’m typically reticent to engage with still lives, often feeling they don’t have much to offer beyond surface-level beauty. However, Cézanne’s approach in this painting challenged my feelings. At my first glance, the piece appeared to be calm and balanced. As I studied it more closely, I realized Cézanne was doing something far more intricate. The idea of capturing life’s truths has always been compelling to me. Rather than presenting an idealized scene, Cézanne embraces the messy elements of existence.
The items in this painting could be thought of as motifs since Cézanne painted a number of still lifes rendering the same things (ginger jar, fruits, crumpled textiles). This idea of seriality is interesting to me in thinking about the repetition of daily life. Showing change by depicting things that never change, returning to ideas, props, forms, as a way to think about progress and a life’s work.
Cézanne’s work was revolutionary, creating a bridge between Impressionism and Cubism. His interest in light aligns with the Impressionists’ while his overlapping planes and shapes foreshadowed the fragmented forms and spatial relationships that are present in Cubism. At a time when artists were “expected” to adhere to the strict rules of perspective, Cézanne broke away, employing a more honest depiction of how we see and experience the real world. What I saw as a simple arrangement of objects revealed layers of depth, both visually and conceptually, through Cézanne’s ability to balance imperfection with harmony.
References
Paul Cézanne | Still Life with a Ginger Jar and Eggplants | The Metropolitan Museum of Art. (n.d.). The Metropolitan Museum of Art. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/435881
Paul Cézanne | Still Life with Apples | The J. Paul Getty Museum Collection.
(n.d.). The J. Paul Getty Museum Collection
https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103QT5
Paul Cézanne | Ginger Jar (Pot de gingembre) | Barnes Collection Online.
(n.d.). Barnes Collection
https://collection.barnesfoundation.org/objects/7001/Ginger-Jar-(Pot-de-gingembre)/
The National Gallery, London. (n.d.). Paul Cezanne (1839 – 1906) | National Gallery, London. https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/paul-cezanne
Voorhies, J. (1 C.E., January 1). Paul Cézanne (1839–1906). The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/pcez/hd_pcez.htm
