The objects are no longer isolated: it is as if they are engaged in a warm, lively dialogue, which reflects the care and attention C┼╜zanne has lavished on them. He explained this to Joachim Gasquet: ΓÇÿThose glasses and plates are talking to each other. Endlessly exchanging secrets.ΓÇÖ
CŽzanne insisted that this exchange was vital and that there must be a palpable attraction between inanimate objects, which is normally denied to them. He lent them his own sensibility when he said: ‘Objects penetrate each other. … They do not stop living. … They spread imperceptibly around each other, through intimate reflections, as we do through glances and words.’ He chose simple, everyday objects for his still lifes, and they reappear in picture after picture: the white ceramic fruit dish, the squat round sugar bowl, the Marseilles pottery, the ginger jar with its wicker holder, the bottle of rum surrounded by straw and the jug with the floral pattern. For backgrounds he used three different fabrics, sometimes singly, sometimes together: one blue with a deep ultramarine floral pattern, another with a pattern of blue and ochre leaves, and a third fabric, a thick woollen cloth or rug, with
