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Paul Cezanne, The Stove in the Studio

Key facts
Full title The Stove in the Studio
Artist Paul Cezanne
Artist dates 1839 - 1906
Date made about 1865
Medium and support Oil on canvas
Dimensions 41 × 30 cm
Inscription summary Signed
Acquisition credit Acquired from the estate of Mrs Helen Chester Beatty under the acceptance-in-lieu procedure, 1992
Inventory number NG6509
Location Not on display
Collection Main Collection
The Stove in the Studio
Paul Cezanne

During the 1860s Cezanne divided his time between his family home in Aix-en-Provence and Paris, where this picture was probably painted. It evokes the privation of his Bohemian existence in the capital. Cezanne has rearranged the objects in his studio, and we see them from a high viewpoint, as though he is looking down on them from his easel. On the right a single flower stands in a vase on a table. Behind the stove is a canvas on its stretcher frame, while a palette and what may be a small picture hang on the wall at the left.

Cezanne spent a great deal of time in Paris sketching in the Louvre, where he would have been able to study the work of Chardin. The scrutiny of everyday objects and simple frontal composition are particularly reminiscent of Chardin’s Copper Cistern, which was acquired by the Louvre in 1869.

The first owner of this work was Cezanne’s boyhood friend, the writer Emile Zola.

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More paintings by Paul Cezanne

(Showing 6 of 12 works)
An Old Woman with a Rosary
An Old Woman with a Rosary
Paul Cezanne
A old women, her gaze unfocused, clutches a rosary – a string of beads used in prayer – tightly in her hands. According to the writer Joachim Gasquet, the sitter was a former nun who had escaped from a convent, wandering aimlessly until Cezanne took her on as a servant.Gasquet found this painting...
Room 44
Avenue at Chantilly
Avenue at Chantilly
Paul Cezanne
Cezanne spent several months over the summer of 1888 working in and around Chantilly, some 24 miles north of Paris. This is one of three similar oil paintings of the park surrounding the chateau that he produced during his stay. The symmetry and spatial depth of this view may have appealed to him...
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Bathers (Les Grandes Baigneuses)
Bathers (Les Grandes Baigneuses)
Paul Cezanne
Around 200 of Cezanne’s works depict male and female nude bathers, either singly or in groups, in a landscape. This large painting is one of three pictures of female bathers that Cezanne worked on during the final decade of his life. They represent the culmination of his lifelong investigation of...
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Hillside in Provence
Hillside in Provence
Paul Cezanne
The wall of angular, jutting rock formations in this painting may represent a quarry, with the cuttings revealing geological strata. While the hillside is somewhere in Cezanne’s native Provence, the specific location has not been conclusively identified.Stylistically, the painting relates to scen...
Room 41
In the Bibémus Quarry
In the Bibémus Quarry
Paul Cezanne
In the 1890s and early 1900s, Cezanne painted numerous views of the Bibémus Quarry. Situated not far from Aix-en-Provence, the site was renowned since Antiquity for its yellow-ochre limestone. But while the artist was mesmerised by the quarry’s chromatic qualities, he also had personal and intell...
Room 43
Landscape with Poplars
Landscape with Poplars
Paul Cezanne
This painting is of a summer landscape in Cezanne’s native Provence in the south of France. Like the Impressionists, Cezanne was interested in depicting the landscape primarily using touches of colour. Although this painting shows Cezanne’s debt to Impressionism, his method is more controlled. Fo...
Room 44
Self Portrait
Self Portrait
Paul Cezanne
Paul Cezanne was about 40 years old when he painted this self portrait in Paris around 1880–1. He was now middle-aged with a family to support, and the intensity of his earlier self portraits has here given way to a more distant and reflective presence. Although relatively small, the portrait has...
Room 44
Still Life with Water Jug
Still Life with Water Jug
Paul Cezanne
Room 43
The Avenue at the Jas de Bouffan
The Avenue at the Jas de Bouffan
Paul Cezanne
Room 44
The Grounds of the Château Noir
The Grounds of the Château Noir
Paul Cezanne
The Château Noir was a rambling house situated in extensive grounds near Aix-en-Provence in the south of France. Surrounded by wild vegetation, the run-down, isolated chateau offered Cezanne many subjects, and it became one of his favourite locations. He rented a small room in the house from 1897...
Room 41
The Painter's Father, Louis-Auguste Cezanne
The Painter's Father, Louis-Auguste Cezanne
Paul Cezanne
An older man sits, legs crossed and head bowed, absorbed in his reading. This is Cezanne’s father, Louis-Auguste. He was probably in his early sixties when his son painted this portrait directly onto an alcove wall in the salon of Jas de Bouffan, the country residence outside Aix-en-Provence that...
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The Sea at L'Estaque
The Sea at L'Estaque
Paul Cezanne
Room 44
You've viewed 6 of 12 paintings