Max Weber's Three Tulips painted in 1907 is representative of a crucial juncture in the artist's transformation from academic naturalism to modernist abstraction. Painted during his Paris sojourn from 1905 to 1908, the present work along with other iconic examples from this period, such as Still Life with Apples (1907, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York) and Still Life with Blue Vase (1907, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.) reveal Weber's growing engagement with the work of Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) and the other leading Post-Impressionists. Particularly interested in their principles on compositional structure and color theory, Weber observed in their work that everyday objects could be rendered not as illusions of space but as interlocking forms that assert the flatness of the canvas. By replacing atmospheric depth with an emphasis on planar relationships and chromatic modulation, Weber began to move toward a new pictorial language that privileged formal harmony and abstraction over representation.

Weber's immersion in the avant-garde living and working in Paris was central to his stylistic development. With money saved, Weber left for Pairs in 1905 and enrolled at the Académie Julian. He frequented the circles that surrounded Henri Matisse (1869-1954)—his instructor for less than a year—and encountered the works of Cézanne, Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), and the emerging Fauves. It was the work of Cézanne, however, that would be especially formative for Weber. The young artist arrived in Paris at a time when Cézanne's posthumous exhibitions, notably the 1907 retrospectives at the Bernheim-Jeune gallery and Salon d'Automne, were revolutionizing the principles of modern painting. Cézanne's insistence on the geometric foundation of nature—that all visible forms could be reduced to "the cylinder, the sphere, the cone, putting everything in proper perspective, so that each side of an object or plane is directed toward a central point"—offered Weber a conceptual framework for reimagining the structures of his compositions. (J. Rewald, Cézanne: A Biography, New York, 1986, p. 199)

In Three Tulips, Weber evidently internalizes this principle from Cézanne, translating the fruit, vase, flowers, table, and chair into interlocking, faceted shapes. In the present work, the conventional hierarchy between subject and ground dissolves and he transforms the table and its contents into a dynamic interplay of color and contour. Like Cézanne, Weber employs a sophisticated modeling technique to his still lifes and uses rhythmic brushwork to render each object's natural form. However, Weber's engagement with Cézanne's work goes beyond formal emulation, as he abandons Cézanne's measured classicism for a more expressive, painterly sensibility. The resulting image is one that seems to vibrate with psychological energy and anticipates his later arguments that modern art should penetrate beneath the surface and uncover the essence of form.

Three Tulips also reveals the influence Cézanne's approach to color had on Weber, as he observed that Cézanne used color not as a surface ornament but as a constructive agent—modulating warm and cool hues to create spatial depth without relying on the technique of chiaroscuro. Weber's adoption of this principle with expressive intensity is evident in the present work, as the reds, oranges, yellows, and greens generate a pulsing rhythm that both unifies the composition and infuses the inert objects of the scene with a latent energy. These color harmonies ultimately demonstrate how Cézanne's approach could be reinterpreted with a more emotive, symbolist sensibility. In Three Tulips, Weber synthesizes Cézanne's structural and chromatic principles into a distinctly expressive vernacular that marks a critical moment in his transition toward modernist abstraction.