Paul Cézanne, The Stove in the Studio, ca. 1865

This view of the artist's studio was probably painted in Paris. During this period Cézanne divided his time between his native Aix-en-Provence and Paris, and the picture evokes the privation of his Bohemian existence in the capital. On the right a single flower stands in a vase on a table. A canvas stretcher is visible behind the stove, and a palette and what may be a small picture hang on the wall at the left.
The first owner of this work was Cézanne's boyhood friend, the writer Emile Zola.