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Three whole, green pears against a caramel-brown background fill this horizontal still life painting. The painting was created with long, parallel, visible brushstrokes throughout, and a strip of unpainted canvas lines the top edge. We look slightly down onto the fruit, which was painted with thick strokes of lemon-lime, asparagus, and spring green, and each piece of fruit is outlined with navy blue. The two pears to either side stand up and the third, between them, lies on the table with its brown stem angled to our left.

Paul Cézanne

Three Pears, 1878/1879

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 20 x 25.7 cm (7 7/8 x 10 1/8 in.)

framed: 37.47 x 43.5 x 6.35 cm (14 3/4 x 17 1/8 x 2 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

Accession Number

2006.128.14

Artists / Makers

Paul Cézanne (painter) French, 1839 - 1906

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Provenance

Paul Mellon [1907-1999], Upperville, Virginia; bequest 1999 to NGA, with life interest to Mrs. Mellon; life interest released 2006.

Associated Names

Mellon, Paul

Exhibition History

1920: Biennale, Venice, 1920, no. 8.

1939: Valentine Gallery, New York, 1939, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

1952: Fine Arts Associates, New York, 1952, no. 3, repro.

2013: Intimate Impressionism from the National Gallery of Art, Museo dell'Ara Pacis Augustae, Rome (exhibition title in this venue: Impressionist Gems); California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco; McNay Art Museum, San Antonio; Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, Tokyo, Seattle Art Museum, 2013-2016.

Three Pears, 1878/1879

Provenance

Associated Names

Exhibition History

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