Paris · Painting
(Attributed to) Cézanne – Still Life with Pears and Green Apples
Musée de l'Orangerie · Paris, France
This still life, Pears and Green Apples, is traditionally attributed to Paul Cézanne. Its somewhat muddy coloring and brushwork that doesn't quite match Cézanne's typical style, however, have raised doubts about whether he really painted it.
As a result, some experts suspect the work may actually be by Paul Gachet, son of Dr. Gachet — Cézanne's friend and Van Gogh's patron — who learned to paint by copying the Cézannes his father owned, and who at one point owned this very canvas himself.
That said, a disputed attribution is not the same as a confirmed one: there's no way to say with certainty that this isn't a genuine Cézanne. Even great painters have off days, after all, and the question remains open for experts still investigating the matter.