A Table Corner (Un coin de table)

A Table Corner (1895) at the Barnes Foundation is a focused still-life fragment—a corner of a table with fruit or objects—that exemplifies Cézanne's tendency to treat the still-life motif as an inexhaustible structural investigation. The table-corner format, also explored in separate compositions by Cézanne, offers a particularly challenging spatial problem: the convergence of two planes at an angle, the relationship of objects on the surface to the vertical supporting structure, all perceived from a viewpoint that simultaneously encompasses multiple spatial registers.

The table's edge creates a strong geometric structure. Objects on the surface are described through adjacent color patches without blending. Cézanne's characteristic multiple-viewpoint distortions are visible in the table edge and object placement—consistent with his philosophical investigation of how we synthesize sequential visual observations into a single image.