Paul Cézanne: Journey into Post-Impressionism (Elijah Harris)

  Paul Cézanne is an oil painter from France who is highly praised nowadays for his masterful ability to communicate form and depth in his paintings. What makes his case so special however is that he creates the illusions of form and depth not by using shape and value, but instead by using color, which was a completely mind-blowing technique for his day and age. The day and age in question started on January 19, 1839 and continued until October 22, 1906, these being the date of his birth and the date of his death respectively. Cézanne is best known for the more post-impressionist style paintings that he did in his later years, the ones that went on to inspire the Fauves and Cubists. But he wasn’t always a master painter, he too had to painstakingly learn the delicate art of oil painting, the difference for him was that he was in almost completely uncharted waters so there was no one to teach him, meaning the only person he could learn from was himself. This exhibition will demonstrate the shift towards the post-impressionist style that Cézanne is known for, starting in 1874 with a more traditional piece and ending in 1906 with one of his final pieces and one that was done in his signature style.

Bathers, Paul Cézanne, (French, Aix-en-Provence 1839–1906 Aix-en-Provence), 1874–75, Oil on canvas, 15 x 18 1/8 in. (38.1 x 46 cm)

Accession Number: 1976.201.12

    Bathers is one of his much earlier works, but even then, when it is displayed and viewed as a stand alone piece it is still an impressive painting. If praising the piece was the goal then one could easily note a whole list of things, like how the horizontal ⅔ composition creates a type of stillness within the painting that adds a lot to the already calm scene. However when compared to his later works, Bathers comes across as extremely flat due to lack of differentiation between the foreground and background. It also features an extremely small and bland selection of colors when compared to his later works.

The Fishermen (Fantastic Scene), Paul Cézanne (French, Aix-en-Provence 1839–1906 Aix-en-Provence), ca. 1875, Oil on canvas, 21 3/4 x 32 1/4 in. (55.2 x 81.9 cm)

Accession Number: 2001.473

Here we can see that Cézanne has somewhat improved his ability to depict depth, seeing as to how he differentiates the foreground from the background in this piece . In The Fishermen (Fantastic Scene) his color selection has also definitely improved, here, his palette is larger and more diverse than it was in Bathers but once again he is still very far from living up to the potential that we, in hindsight, know he has.

Here we can see that Cézanne has somewhat improved his ability to depict depth, seeing as to how he differentiates the foreground from the background in this piece . In The Fishermen (Fantastic Scene) his color selection has also definitely improved, here, his palette is larger and more diverse than it was in Bathers but once again he is still very far from living up to the potential that we, in hindsight, know he has.  

Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley, Paul Cézanne (French, Aix-en-Provence 1839–1906 Aix-en-Provence), 1882–85, Oil on canvas, 25 3/4 x 32 1/8 in. (65.4 x 81.6 cm), H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929

Accession Number: 29.100.64

    Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley is one of a few paintings done by Cézanne that really seem to mark a turning point in his artistic style and career. It is here, on the third painting in the exhibition, where we seem to get something of a sneak peak into the future and the way that Cézanne will eventually learn to use color. Yet still, for Cézanne this is only the start. We can see that, while they do look great, the colors in this painting are not yet strong enough to stand by themselves, and therefore Cézanne ends up having to continue relying on the heavy use of line in order to convey form.

Gardanne, Paul Cézanne (French, Aix-en-Provence 1839–1906 Aix-en-Provence), 1885–86, Oil on canvas, 31 1/2 x 25 1/4 in. (80 x 64.1 cm), Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Franz H. Hirschland, 1957

Accession Number: 57.181

    The abrupt leap in style and quality between the paintings is already slightly jarring when moving from one piece to the next, but the leap from Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley to this painting is by far the most drastic. By this point we are able to see that Cézanne has really started leaning into post-impressionism, and it is around this time period where he starts to get comfortable with new methods of painting.

View of the Domaine Saint-Joseph, Paul Cézanne (French, Aix-en-Provence 1839–1906 Aix-en-Provence), late 1880s, Oil on canvas, 25 5/8 x 32 in. (65.1 x 81.3 cm)

Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection, Wolfe Fund, 1913

Accession Number: 13.66

    This tends to be seen as one of Cézanne’s more unique paintings. This painting serves as a great example of how experimental Cézanne would sometimes seem to get, seeing as how many scholars have been stumped by the finished yet also unfinished nature of this piece. Here we get to see Cézanne show off his incredible ability to take “color”, as an element of art, and masterfly convert it into an art piece. Whereas many artists use line and/or shape as their foundation, Cézanne managed to find a way to make his color. 

Mont Sainte-Victoire, Paul Cézanne (French, Aix-en-Provence 1839–1906 Aix-en-Provence), ca. 1902–6, Oil on canvas, 22 1/2 x 38 1/4 in. (57.2 x 97.2 cm), The Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg Collection, Gift of Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg, 1994, Bequest of Walter H. Annenberg, 2002

Accession Number: 1994.420

    This is one of the last paintings Cézanne ever did, seeing as how it was finished in 1906, the same year that he died. Yet somehow it feels like the perfect final piece for this exhibition, as we are brought back to the mountain that fascinated Cézanne for so many years and the one that marked almost every step in his artistic journey. This piece also serves a symbolic purpose, because it is literally and figuratively the highest peak of his artistic abilities. This little, abstract, painting of a mountain seems humble enough, yet every single color in combination with every single brushstroke on the canvas is the culmination of decades and decades of work and practice, and it is a perfect representation of Cézanne’s legacy.