Still Life, Pears and Green Apples, 1873, Paul Cézanne (Aix-en Provence 1829-1906) at Musée de l'Orangerie
[Tableau attribié à Paul Cézanne]
This work is a very simple silence, reduced to the essentials: four pieces, one pear and three green apples, or perhaps peaches and two plums, placed directly on the table. In the background is a blank wall. Another oil painting on Doctor Gachet's card, titled Pêche et poire [Peach and Pear] seems to portray the same fruit. Paintings at the Musee de l'Orangerie may be part of a series painted at Auvers-sur-Oise in 1873.
However, there are still doubts about the authenticity of this work, which is driven by a lack of brightness in certain colors and softness in brushstrokes. Rejected by art historian John Rewald in his catalog of works of Cézanne published in 1996, it could be by Paul Gachet (1873-1962), son of the famous Doctor Gachet, friend of Cézanne and protector of Van Gogh. The younger Paul Gachet, pupil of Cézanne, studied painting by copying paintings in his father's collection. Claiming as an artist painter, he signed his paintings Paul Van Ryssel.
This canvas apparently remained in Paul Gachet's house until it was purchased by Domenica Walter in 1951 through an intermediary, Methey or Mathey, in exchange for two paintings by Chaïm Soutine.


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Meg Williams2009
Location
Paris