The Vase of Tulips
c. 1890
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
59.6 × 42.3 cm (23 1/2 × 16 5/8 in.); Framed: 84.5 × 67 × 10.2 cm (33 1/4 × 26 3/8 × 4 in.)
Classification
oil on canvas
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
14561
Art Historical Context
Paul Cézanne's *The Vase of Tulips*, painted around 1890, captures a simple yet profound still life: vibrant tulips bursting from a vase against a subtly modulated background. This oil on canvas, measuring about 60 x 42 cm, exemplifies Cézanne's mature period at his Aix-en-Provence studio, where he obsessively explored everyday objects to redefine painting itself. As a cornerstone of Post-Impressionism, Cézanne moved beyond Impressionist fleeting light, constructing solid forms through deliberate brushwork and color planes. Cézanne's technique here—layered, mosaic-like strokes—builds volume a...
About the Artist
Paul Cezanne · 1839–1906
Paul Cézanne (1839–1906), born in Aix-en-Provence to a prosperous banker father, Louis-Auguste, and mother Anne-Elisabeth-Honorine Aubert, grew up in a bourgeois family that later acquired the Jas de Bouffan estate, where he painted his earliest murals. As a youth, he formed the inseparable trio "Les Trois Inséparables" with schoolmates Émile Zola and Baptistin Baille. Despite his father's wishes ...