While Paul Cézanne studied several subject matters, he was famous for his landscape paintings, specifically during his later years in Aix-en-Provence. Leaving his studio in Paris, Cézanne returned to permanently resettle in Provence after his father’s death in 1886. Provence was significant to Cézanne as it was his sentimental childhood home, but it was also a fascinating subject matter for him to explore. During his later career from the mid-1880s to his death, Cézanne focused upon the distinctive terrain and architecture of Provence, capturing specific landscapes and structures. Unlike his contemporaries Renoir and Claude Monet, Cézanne did not venture away from Aix, only taking extended visits to Paris and Île-de-France. Cézanne strengthened his artistic practice by adapting the traditional forms and modern ideas of Paris in order to represent his home region.
This exhibition reflects the idea of place that is powerful throughout Cézanne's Provençal paintings. Focusing on the pays d’Aix (countryside of Aix), Cézanne often depicted familiar places such as his family estate of the Jas de Bouffan, the surrounding town of Aix, the dramatic mountain Sainte-Victorie, the valley of the River Arc, and the park of the Château Noir. Through his landscapes, Cézanne painted about our experience of seeing the world. Cézanne returned to places in Aix that were particularly grounding for him, painting them again and again. Influenced by his own anxiety and depression, the trees and mountains of his surroundings, although distant, became something he continued to paint as he attempted to capture the essence of his subjects.
Paul Cézanne, L’Estaque, 1879-1883, Oil on Canvas, 80.3 x 99.4 cm, The Museum of Modern Art Object Number: 716.1959
This artwork is not portraying a scene in the region of Aix, as Cézanne was inclined to do in his later years, but rather it is a piece from his trips to L'Estaque beginning in the early 1870s. A small fishing port near Marseille and Aix, L’Estaque of the late 1800s was accessible by train and boat, provided labor and raw materials, and became a popular seaside resort among tourists. However, Cézanne was not fascinated by these attractions, but rather he was drawn to the sites above the town. Until his departure for Aix in 1885, Cézanne painted scenes from L’Estaque as a symbol of escape, foreshadowing the themes he explored in his hometown.
Paul Cézanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley, 1882-85, Oil on Canvas, 65.4 x 81.6 cm, The Met Accession Number: 29.100.64
This painting depicts the rocky Montagne Sainte-Victorie, a repeated subject throughout Cézanne’s work. It was the largest mountain towering above the Arc river valley and became a symbolic form of expression for Cézanne in the late 1890s and early 1900s. Completing nine major oil and seventeen watercolor paintings of the mountain, Cézanne worked on this piece from the hill of his sister’s property. Although landscape painters had historically used the Sainte-Victoire as a signifying attribute of the countryside of Aix, Cézanne was fascinated with the gray, rocky mountain as a means to capture the inner essence and geometry of nature.
Paul Cézanne, Trees and Houses Near the Jas de Bouffan, 1885-86, Oil on Canvas, 67.9 x 92.1 cm, The Met Accession Number: 1975.1.160
This piece depicts the Jas de Bouffan mansion, owned by the Cézanne family from 1859 to 1899. Represented frequently throughout his work in the mid-1880s, the Jas provided a quiet workspace to study the architecture and gardens of the mansion. As part of his numerous paintings of the mansion from 1885 to 1887, this piece demonstrates Cézanne’s commitment to studying the Provençal architecture and surrounding property of the Jas. The collection of paintings of the Jas represent Cézanne’s childhood home, which became a place of solitude and separation from the rest of the world in his later life.
Paul Cézanne, Gardanne, 1885-1886, Oil on Canvas, 80 x 64.1 cm, The Met Accession Number: 57.181
Settling in Provence during the unsettling period following his father’s death, Cézanne isolated himself from the art world, allowing his work to develop in the region of Aix. Aside from the subjects L’Estaque and the Jas previously discussed, two other sites in Provence were focal points of Cézanne’s work, the first being the village of Gardanne. While the collection of works showing the Gardanne is small, the paintings mark an important step in Cézanne’s career. To paint the old village, Cézanne positioned himself at the Colline des Frèes in order to indicate a low viewpoint, removing any sign of industrialization.
Paul Cézanne, In the Plain of Bellevue, 1885-1888, Oil on Canvas, 81.3 x 100.6 cm, The Barnes Foundation Accession Number: BF909
The second site that monopolized Cézanne’s attention was the countryside around Valcros, particularly including the properties of Montbriand and Bellevue. Captured as the subject of this painting, the Bellevue estate, next to Montbraind, was the largest property of the region. Focused on the valley below the estate, Cézanne painted the rural houses and roof tops with earth tones to emphasize the natural environment. During this brief focus on the Bellevue valley from 1885 to 1889, Cézanne explored the relationship between man-made structure and nature with such paintings that studied the rural area and mansion.
Paul Cézanne, The House with the Cracked Walls (La Maison Lézardée), 1892-94, Oil on Canvas, 80 x 64.1 cm, The Met Accession Number: 1993.400.2
Like the pieces of the Cézanne family mansion, this painting portrays a house in the region of Aix; however, unlike his paintings of the Jas, Cézanne only painted this particular abandoned site once. Towards the late 1880s, Cézanne began to frequently paint cabanons (cottages) which were respected landmarks of traditional Provençal culture. As these landmarks began disappearing due to increased industrialization, these cottages were idealized as symbols of Provençal identity and of a rural, quiet way of life. This abandoned cottage on the edge of a rocky hillside represented the outdated role of cottages as almost corpse-like structures.
Paul Cézanne, The Large Bathers, 1900-1906, Oil on Canvas, 210.5 x 250.8 cm, Philadelphia Museum of Art Accession Number: W1937-1-1
This artwork was completed at Cézanne’s final studio, Les Lauves, in the last decade of his life. It was one of three large nude figure paintings completed during the last years of Cézanne’s career. Inspired by the controversial art of Gustave Courbet, this piece was a modern approach to a traditional theme as well as an homage to the role model of his early career. Rather than hiring models, the subjects of Cézanne’s work were bathers at the River Arc. In these three paintings, Cézanne returns to his study of nude figures in the 1860s, but applies his impressionistic touch that characterized his final years of work in Aix.
Paul Cézanne, Chateau Noir, 1904, Oil on Canvas, 73.7 x 96.6 cm, National Gallery (US) Accession Number: 1958.10.1
This painting depicts the estate of the Château Noir, a property lying near the quarry of Bibémus and the village of Le Tholonet. One of his most personal subjects, the Château Noir, or Château du Diable (Castle of the Devil), was a legendary neo-Gothic mansion where Cézanne rented a room to store his painting materials from 1887 to 1902. This particular painting portrays the west pavilion facing a wooden canyon. The artwork is consistent with Cézanne’s final works which were more dark, forbidding, and claustrophobic. The melancholy sense throughout these paintings reflected Cézanne’s final years in solitude during which he was often called “an invisible hermit”.
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