Still life, bottle of rum 1890

Paul Cézanne made this still life, with a bottle of rum, using oil on canvas. He applied the paint in small, methodical strokes. Think about the materials pictured: the roughly-hewn wooden table, the slightly crumpled textile, the bottle, and the fruit. These everyday objects, though carefully arranged, suggest a world of labor and consumption. Cézanne’s technique is fascinating; he created the image through layers of color, almost building the objects from pigment. Notice the bottle, a centerpiece, likely contained rum—a product of colonial trade and labor. The fruits, too, speak to cultivation, harvest, and market exchange. By placing these items together, Cézanne prompts us to consider how materials, making, and context contribute to our understanding of the world. This challenges our traditional notions of fine art, emphasizing the social and material conditions that underpin even the simplest still life.