Paul Gauguin

Still Life with Teapot and Fruit, 1896. Paul Gauguin. Oil on canvas. The Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg Collection, Gift of Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg, 1997, Bequest of Walter H. Annenberg, 2002.
One of Gauguin’s most treasured possessions was a painting by Cézanne, Still Life with Fruit Dish (1879–80, now Museum of Modern Art, New York ), which he emulates in this picture. Within a similarly compressed space, Gauguin substituted mangoes for Cézanne’s apples and a Tahitian-style printed cloth for a French floral wallpaper design. One significant departure is the human figure at the upper right, glimpsed through a door or window. The year after he completed this work, Gauguin’s finances were so dire that he arranged for the sale of his prized Cézanne.