Woman in Front of a Still Life by Cézanne - Paul Gauguin (1890)

Paul Cézanne

Oil on linen canvas

Art Institute of Chicago

This painting by Paul Gauguin depicts an unidentified seated woman positioned before a canvas of Paul Cézanne's 1879–80 Still Life with Fruit Dish, now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Cézanne's still life was among the works Gauguin had collected while still working as a banker, and he notably signed his own name across the white frame of the Cézanne visible within this composition. Executed in oil on linen canvas in 1890, the work exemplifies Gauguin's Post-Impressionist Synthetist approach, translating Cézanne's structured forms into rhythmical arabesques and bold color contrasts characteristic of his own style. The painting stands as a layered homage to Cézanne's influence and to the dialogue between figure painting and still life in the art of this period.