"Master Class with Cezanne"

Having painted several still lifes of this series, I inevitably snuck up on Cezanne, him being one of the most inspirational painters from my personal artistic pantheon. I had a chance to see some of his paintings "in the flesh" and was amazed at all the brilliant color subtleties within a range of what seemed to be a monochrome area at a distance. Of course for the purpose of this still life, I had to simplify a lot. The book in the painting ("The Masterpiece") was written by Cezanne's childhood friend Emile Zola, who used Cezanne as a prototype for his character Claude Lantier.