Paul Cézanne is one of my favorite painters. He painted a lot of paintings with fruit in them. This one is named Still Life with Peaches and Pears. From the Wikipedia entry on Paul Cezanne: "Cézanne's often repetitive, exploratory brushstrokes are highly characteristic and clearly recognizable. He used planes of colour and small brushstrokes that build up to form complex fields. The paintings convey Cézanne's intense study of his subjects."
Cézanne's work came to mind when I began my last post, but I felt that the peach photograph would be more evocative in a discussion on looking at the colors in a real life peach. There is no doubt that Cézanne saw "all gray, and red, and purples in a peach".
The Color "Peach"
I was thinking about "peach" Crayola crayons (Oh, how many hours I colored and drew with them as a child!) I found a web page that shows Crayola peach crayons through the years. Here is a photo from that website of the 1962-197? peach that I used. (Much as I remember it.)
Here is the current, since 2006, peach Crayola.
Does either one look anything like a peach? I think not. "Peach" as a color is a third (see 3) definition for peach (from www.freedictionary.com):
peach (pēch), n.
1. the round, pink-to-yellow, fuzzy-skinned fruit of a tree, Prunuspersica, of the rose family.
2. the tree itself, cultivated in temperate climates.
3. a light pinkish yellow color.
4. Informal. a person or thing that is especially attractive, liked, or enjoyed.
2. the tree itself, cultivated in temperate climates.
3. a light pinkish yellow color.
4. Informal. a person or thing that is especially attractive, liked, or enjoyed.
A Peach in a Poem
And one more peach came to me as I wrote my last post. I was remembering a poem with a peach in it, from a class I once took on modern poetry. I found myself searching until I found what I vaugely remembered... The poem is by T.S. Eliot and its title: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. I was surprised to find that the word "peach" is used only one time in that entire poem. But the words "Do I dare to eat a peach?" were the words that I remembered most.
Enough said on that. It would be completely out of my realm to begin to discuss literature, but I do like to read a good poem every now and then.
Agreed. Cezanne definitely saw the whole picture, complete with the nuances that others often miss.
ReplyDeleteCrayola has definitely missed the mark, and I think most kids, since they are so aware of the world, would notice.
It's also interesting to note that Hemingway studied Cezanne's paintings for hours at a time; he drew extensively from Cezanne's landscape paintings and interpreted and incorporated what he saw, especially the twisty roads through the countryside, into many of his stories.
Thanks, Dixie. I did not know that about Hemingway. Very interesting! I think that I will go do a search for 'Hemingway and Cezanne'...
ReplyDelete