Struggling To Be Seen – A Poem

According to Art Institute Chicago, Cézanne painted over “at least three other pieces of fruit (presumably oranges) at lower left and near the vase attest to the artist’s changing opinion as he struggled to make the arrangement work“. You can zoom in on the painting in the link.

For this poem, I took a little artistic licence and considered maybe it was just the one orange.

More of my ekphrastic poetry work here. More on free verse here.

Struggling To Be Seen

How can an orange compete with a tulip?
the orange considered,
as Cézanne, now struggling
with his composition, painted over it
near the vase’s lipped foot on his tableaux.

Cézanne’s eye was full of the tulip,
supported by a sturdy vessel,
familiar to the painter. The table
too he’d worked with before. The wildflowers –
handpicked in woods just an hour ago.

Despite its rejection, traces of the orange
remained visible through the brushwork –
the orange refusing defeat,
knowing given half a chance,
it could add a certain orange glow.

Cézanne himself then considered.
Some people of 1890 would never see
an orange year-round but for this painting,
and so he picked up his brush again
and, thoughtfully, mixed red and yellow.

Three oranges Cézanne then added.
Yet still it seemed to him the objects slid
off the table. Future scholars would speculate
about the orange smear on the base, and
its faint outline under the paint. The orange below.

©elsp 2025