Artists Bio

(1839-1899) I French

Introduction

Paul Cézanne's legacy in art history is monumental, bridging the gap between the 19th-century Impressionist movement and the early 20th-century explosion of Cubism. His unparalleled approach to painting, characterized by a unique application of color planes and a methodical brushstroke technique, has solidified his status as a pivotal figure in the transition to modern art. Known as the "father of us all" by luminaries such as Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, Cézanne's influence is both profound and far-reaching.

Personal Background

Finally, in 1861, Cézanne passion for art led him to quit law school and head to Paris to pursue his artistic ambitions. While at first his father strongly objected, he soon realized there was no hope for his son’s banking future and, instead, chose to financially support a full course of study in art. With this financial support, including an inheritance of 400,00 francs, which he would rely on for the rest of his life, he began studies at the Académie Suisse.

At the Académie Suisse, a free arts institution, Cézanne met Camille Pissarro, who was ten years his senior. While their friendship initially resembled a master-disciple relationship, they came to collaborate as equals over the course of the mid-1860s and 1870s. During this period, he also met other young artists, such as Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley.

In the early years of his vocation, Cézanne struggled heavily to find recognition for his work. The Salon de Paris, known as the greatest annual art exhibition in the Western world, consistently rejected his works between 1863 and 1882. Instead, in 1863, he exhibited in the first-ever Salon des Refusés, an exhibition created by Napoleon III to show works rejected by the Salon, alongside fellow artists Pissarro, Manet and Monet.

Career Overview

Cézanne's artistic path can be segmented into distinct periods, each reflecting a deepening of his exploration into color, form and composition. Throughout his career, Cézanne maintained relationships with key contemporaries, yet he always charted his own course, never fully aligning with any one movement for very long.

Dark Period, Paris (1861–1870):

Early in his career, Cézanne's work was heavily influenced by the Realism movement set out by Eugène Delacroix and Gustave Courbet, which strove to depict reality in a sober, unembellished way. Cézanne's technique was marked by a somber palette and heavy application of paint, which he occasionally spread with a palette knife. This period included impactful figure paintings characterized by their dramatic intensity and emotional depth, a few landscapes, and morbid subjects.

Part of the darkness of this period came from Cézanne’s discomfort in Paris. Cézanne struggled immensely to adapt to the sophistication and intensity of the urban city. This, coupled with his constant rejections from the Salon and École des Beaux-Arts, incited self-doubt and displeasure with the state of his life. His meager allowance at the time also forced him to live in the shoddiest parts of Paris and exposed him to the dangers of city life, which led to an obsession with morbidity and the grotesque. These subjects were avidly explored during this period.

Impressionist Period, Provence and Paris (1870–1878):

Influenced by his mentor Pissarro, Cézanne began experimenting with color and light. His works from this period show a transition towards a brighter palette and looser brushwork, focusing on landscapes and scenes of rural life. Rather than the drama of his earlier period, Cézanne turned to the ordinary. This period is also the first time that Cézanne painted bathers, a subject that he would continue to explore for the rest of his career.

Pissarro also championed his friend’s inclusion in the first Impressionist exhibition of 1874, though other members were worried Cézanne’s works were too bold for critics’ support. Indeed, Cézanne’s Modern Olympia (1874) was met with intense revile by critics and the public who believed the work too blasé in its loose brushstrokes, strangely bodied figures and the complete transformation of Titian’s classical Venus of Urbina (1538). Due to the controversiality of his works, Cézanne only exhibited once more with the Impressionists in 1877.

In 1872, Cézanne had his son, Paul, with his partner Hortense de Fiquet. His son would be one of his most constant loves, and he remained dedicated to him all his life.

Mature Period, Provence (1878–1890):

In 1878, Cézanne began splitting his time more frequently between Provence and Paris until 1880, when his father had a studio built at Jas de Bouffan. This studio, on the upper floor of the home, remained his beloved studio for the rest of his career.

Cézanne's return to Provence marked a period of intense productivity and innovation. He developed his signature style of constructing forms with color, leading to the creation of works that emphasized the solidity and structure of the subject matter. During this time, he also collaborated with other artists in various sessions, such as painting with Paul Gauguin and Pissarro in 1881 in Pontoise and in the small fishing village L'Estaque with Renoir in 1882.

Although Cézanne’s marriage to Hortense was breaking down during this time, she was painted by Cézanne 26 times from the early 1870s to 1890. Between 1880 and 1888, Cézanne also consistently painted various landscape views of the Mont Sainte-Victoire. These paintings, especially between 1885 and 1888, are sometimes known as his “Constructivist Period” for their planned, precise brushstrokes. Constructivism was the direct predecessor to Cubism.

Final Period, Provence (1890–1906):

In 1890, Cézanne was diagnosed with diabetes, which made it harder for him to tolerate being in social situations. His anti-socialness, which had persisted all his life, increased after his diagnosis and he often worked alone in Paris and Provence. His marriage completely broke down by this point, and he lived separately from his wife and son, though they continued to rely on him for financial stability.

In his later years, Cézanne focused on landscapes, still lives, and studies of bathers. His work became a synthesis of all the decades of creation before it while also becoming increasingly abstract, with compositions emphasizing geometric simplification and spatial complexity. Known as the Synthesis period, his works foreshadowed the development of Cubism. The guiding philosophy was to showcase nature, especially the beauty of Provence, in a way that captured the essence of reality while slightly altering the representation of the scene.

For the first time in his career, Cézanne exhibited a one-man show in 1895 at Ambroise Vollard’s gallery in Paris. The first buyer of a Cézanne was Claude Monet, and in the years following the exhibition, interest in owning an original Cézanne grew exponentially. Although he finally attained recognition, Cézanne’s works were hated by the bourgeoisie of Provence, and he received countless threatening letters. This, coupled with his depression in old age, led him to distrust those around him and isolate heavily in the last years of his life.

On October 122, 1906, after being caught in a storm while painting outdoors, he succumbed to pneumonia. His death marked the end of an era, but his influence endured, cementing his legacy as a foundational figure in the evolution of modern art. Immediately after Cézanne's death in 1906, young French artists began to study his work closely and draw inspiration from his innovative abstractions. Artists like Henri Matisse, who said in 1949 that he owned the majority of Cézanne's work, Georges Braque, Fernand Leger, Pablo Picasso, André Derain, Marcel Duchamp and Piet Mondrian have expressed a passion for Cézanne.

Legacy and Later Life

Despite facing rejection and misunderstanding during his lifetime, Cézanne's posthumous recognition grew exponentially. His approach to painting influenced generations of artists, from the Fauves to the Cubists and beyond. Cézanne's exploration of geometric simplification and optical phenomena not only paved the way for Picasso and Braque's Cubist experiments but also left a lasting impression on the trajectory of modern art.

Cézanne's work continues to be celebrated in major retrospectives and collections worldwide, reflecting his enduring relevance and the timeless quality of his art. French theorists Albert Gleizes and Jean Metzinger wrote in their influential book on Cubism:

“Cézanne is one of the greatest of those who changed the course of art history ... From him we have learned that to alter the colouring of an object is to alter its structure. His work proves without doubt that painting is not—or not any longer—the art of imitating an object by lines and colours, but of giving plastic [solid, but alterable] form to our nature...”

His quest for harmony, balance and purity in painting remains a beacon for artists and art lovers alike.