Millstone and Cistern under Trees (La Meule et citerne en sous-bois)

Millstone and Cistern under Trees (1892) at the Barnes Foundation depicts objects in the landscape around the Jas de Bouffan—domestic and agricultural artifacts half-absorbed into the natural environment. These subjects occupy a middle ground in Cézanne's oeuvre between pure landscape and still life, bringing the structural analysis of his studio arrangements outdoors. The stone cistern and millstone, weathered and massive, are treated as natural geological forms equivalent to the rock outcrops of Bibémus, reinforcing Cézanne's tendency to see the world as a field of interrelated solid forms subject to the same structural analysis.

The stone objects are described through Cézanne's systematic planar stroke—the cistern's cylindrical mass built through adjacent color patches of cool grey and warm ochre. Tree trunks rise around the objects as strong verticals. The space between objects, trees, and ground is carefully modulated through color temperature differences.