Paul Cezanne

Few artists are as influential as Paul Cezanne, the French Post-Impressionist whose work inspired Fauvism, Cubism and other avant-garde movements. Born in Aix-en-Provence in 1839, Cezanne began to study drawing while still at school. He later graduated from the Collège Bourbon before entering law school at the University of Aix.

In 1861, two years after matriculating, he abandoned the course and moved to Paris. For a brief period, he studied at the Atelier Suisse with Camille Pissarro, and in the capital, he became close friends with Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. His paintings were rejected by the official Paris Salon, so he, like many of his contemporaries, participated in the 1863 Salon des Refusés.

Although he never fully aligned with Impressionism, Cezanne did show paintings at the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874. In the canvases of these years, he built up luminous colour and began to paint en plein air, as seen in Bathers (1874–75), which combines the radiance of natural light with figures drawn from his imagination. It was during this decade that Cezanne began to probe the relationship between colour and form. This would come to be the central question of his oeuvre.

Following the onset of the Franco-Prussian War, Cezanne left Paris for the south. He began to paint landscapes in and around Aix and of l’Estaque, near Marseille. It was here that Cezanne developed his analytical approach to painting, in which he sought to show depth through colour and geometry. ‘Everything in nature,’ he observed, ‘is modelled after the sphere, the cone, and the cylinder. One must learn to paint from these simple figures.’ While his studies of Mont Sainte-Victoire demonstrate his dedication to geometric representation, Cezanne experimented in his studio as well as in works such as Apples (1878–79) and Le panier de pommes (c.1893), among others.

By the start of the 20th century, Cezanne was exhibiting widely and internationally, an important figure to legions of artists including Paul Gauguin, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Marcel Duchamp. Cezanne would live in the south of France until his death in 1906.

PAUL CEZANNE (1839-1906)

Melun vu depuis Le Mée-sur-Seine

PAUL CEZANNE (1839-1906)

La Montagne Sainte-Victoire

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)

Bouilloire et fruits

PAUL CÉZANNE (1839-1906)

L'Estaque aux toits rouges

PAUL CEZANNE (1839-1906)

Fruits et pot de gingembre

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)

Nature morte avec pot au lait, melon et sucrier

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)

Nature morte de pêches et poires

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)

L'homme à la pipe (Étude pour un joueur de cartes) ( recto ); Père Alexandre ( verso )

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)

Vue sur L'Estaque et le Château d'If

Paul Cezanne (1839-1906)

Joueur de cartes

Paul Cezanne (1839-1906)

Portrait de Vallier

PAUL CEZANNE (1839-1906)

Quatre pommes et un couteau

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)

Pommes sur un linge

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)

La côte Saint-Denis à Pontoise

PAUL CEZANNE (1839-1906)

L'Aqueduc du canal de Verdon au nord d'Aix

Paul Cezanne (1839-1906)

Le pont et le barrage à Pontoise

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)

Théière et oranges (La Nappe)

Paul Cezanne (1839-1906)

Poires dans une assiette blanche

Paul Cezanne (1839-1906)

Route tournante ( recto ); La Montagne Sainte-Victoire vue des lauves ( verso )

PAUL CEZANNE (1839-1906)

Dans la carrière de Bibémus

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)

La Montagne Sainte-Victoire vue des Lauves

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)

Poires et couteau

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)

Marronniers et ferme du Jas de Bouffan

Paul Cezanne (1839-1906)

La Montagne Sainte-Victoire vue des Lauves

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)

Village derrière les arbres, Ile de France

PAUL CEZANNE (1839-1906)

Maisons au Chou, à Pontoise

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)

La Montagne Sainte-Victoire vue des Lauves

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)

Village derrière des arbres, Île-de-France

PAUL CEZANNE (1839-1906)

La mer à l'Estaque

PAUL CEZANNE (1839-1906)

Etude de baigneuses

Paul Cezanne (1839-1906)

La Conversation

PAUL CÉZANNE (1839-1906)

La Montagne Sainte-Victoire vue des Lauves

PAUL CEZANNE (1839-1906)

La montagne Sainte-Victoire vue des Lauves (recto); Etude d'arbres (verso)

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)

Oranges et verre ( recto ) ; Le fils de Cézanne ( verso )

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)

Le village des pêcheurs à l'Estaque

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)

Vue d’Auvers-sur-Oise—La Barrière

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)

Baigneuses devant une montagne ( recto ); Etude de maison ( verso )

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)

La conversation

Paul Cezanne (1839-1906)

L'amour en plâtre

PAUL CEZANNE (1839-1906)

Le vase bleu sombre

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)

Puits et route tournante dans le parc de Château Noir

Paul Cezanne (1839-1906)

Route tournante

Paul Cezanne (1839-1906)

Forêt ( recto ); Arbres et buissons ( verso )

Paul Cezanne (1839-1906)

Arbres se croisant au bord de l'eau, II

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)

Don Quichotte, vu de dos

Paul Cezanne (1839-1906)

Tête de femme (Portrait présumé de Madame Zola)