Rumpled white cloth (with red stripe) Symbolism

A shifting terrain of planes that mediates order and disorder, guiding the eye through multiple viewpoints.

Common Themes

Vanitas & worldly vanityThe modern lens: urban life & speedMimesis vs. abstraction (truth vs. artifice)Medium reflexivity (art about art)Everyday life as art (readymade, the ordinary)Human vs. nature

Artworks Featuring This Symbol

The Basket of Apples by Paul Cézanne

The Basket of Apples

Paul Cézanne (c. 1893)

Paul Cézanne’s The Basket of Apples stages a quiet drama of <strong>balance and perception</strong>. A tilted basket spills apples across a <strong>rumpled white cloth</strong> toward a <strong>dark vertical bottle</strong> and a plate of <strong>biscuits</strong>, while the tabletop’s edges refuse to align—an intentional play of <strong>multiple viewpoints</strong> <sup>[1]</sup><sup>[2]</sup><sup>[3]</sup>.