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Europe 1800 - 1900
Course: Europe 1800 - 1900 > Unit 5
Lesson 4: Post-Impressionism- Introduction to Neo-Impressionism, Part I
- Introduction to Neo-Impressionism, Part II
- Neo-Impressionist Color Theory
- Seurat, Bathers at Asnières
- Seurat, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte
- Seurat, “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte – 1884”
- Van Gogh, Self-Portrait Dedicated to Paul Gauguin
- Think you know van Gogh? The Potato Eaters
- Van Gogh, Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear
- Van Gogh, The Bedroom
- Van Gogh's Irises: Getty Conversations
- Van Gogh, The Starry Night
- Van Gogh, The Starry Night
- The Pont-Aven School and Synthetism
- Paul Gauguin, Self-Portrait with Portrait of Émile Bernard (Les misérables)
- Paul Gauguin, Vision after the Sermon, or Jacob Wrestling with the Angel
- Gauguin, Nevermore
- Gauguin, The Red Cow
- Gauguin, Spirit of the Dead Watching
- Gauguin, Oviri
- Gauguin, Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?
- Gauguin and Laval in Martinique
- An introduction to the painting of Paul Cézanne
- Why Is This Woman in the Jungle?
- Cézanne, The Bather
- Cézanne, The Basket of Apples
- Cézanne, Still Life with Plaster Cupid
- Cézanne, Still Life with Plaster Cupid
- Cézanne, The Red Rock
- Cézanne, Still Life with Apples
- Cézanne, Turning Road at Montgeroult
- Cézanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire
- Cézanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire
- Cezanne, Card Players
- Cézanne, Bathers
- Cezanne, The Large Bathers
- Toulouse-Lautrec, At the Moulin Rouge
- Post-Impressionism
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An introduction to the painting of Paul Cézanne
Catagorizing the style of Paul Cézanne's (Say-zahn) artwork is problematic. As a young man he left his home in Provence in the south of France in order to join with the avant-garde in Paris. He was successful, too. He fell in with the circle of young painters that surrounded Manet, he had been a childhood friend of the novelist, Emile Zola, who championed Manet, and he even showed at the first Impressionist exhibition, held at Nadar's studio in 1874.
Out of place in Paris
However, Cézanne didn't quite fit in with the group. Whereas many other painters in this circle were concerned primarily with the effects of light and reflected color, Cézanne remained deeply committed to form. Feeling out of place in Paris, he left after a relatively short period and returned to his home in Aix-en-Provence. He would remain in his native Provence for most of the rest of his life. He worked in the semi-isolation afforded by the country, but was never really out of touch with the breakthroughs of the avant-garde.
Working outdoors, but with a different purpose
Like the Impressionists, he often worked outdoors directly before his subjects. But unlike the Impressionists, Cézanne used color, not as an end in itself, but rather like line, as a tool with which to construct form and space. Ironically, it is the Parisian avant-garde that would eventually seek him out. In the first years of the 20th century, just at the end of Cézanne's life, young artists would make a pilgrimage to Aix, to see the man who would change painting.
Influence
Paul Cézanne is often considered to be one of the most influential painter of the late 19th century. Pablo Picasso readily admitted his great debt to the elder master. Similarly, Henri Matisse once called Cézanne, "...the father of us all." For many years The Museum of Modern Art in New York organized its permanent collection so as to begin with an entire room devoted to Cézanne's painting. The Metropolitan Museum of Art also gives over an entire large room to him. Clearly, many artists and curators consider him enormously important.
Essay by Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker
Additional resources:
Want to join the conversation?
What specifically made the style of Paul Cézanne so much more influential than the work of other artists of his time period?(8 votes)
Cezanne's work, particularly his Mont Sainte-Victoire (on this page) gives me a sense of calm and comfort. The sprawling landscape, on to the mountains molded out of delicately placed colour, and the wispy foliage throughout, all give me a sense of "rest" and happiness. This kind of feeling usually happens to me when I'm looking at Monet's softer, brighter works (particularly the ones that made use of pastels).
I don't particularly enjoy the way he does people, but his still lifes and his landscapes are exquisite and breed a sense of almost consuming calm and contemplation in me. Was he at all inspired by the works of Claude Monet? And do others, here, see similarities between some of Cezanne's work and Monet's pieces, particularly his studies of light (on poplar trees)?(2 votes)
Hi, How can I add this page in my Bibliography? Is there a DOI?
Many thanks(1 vote)
Cite this page as: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, "An introduction to the painting of Paul Cézanne," in Smarthistory, August 9, 2015, accessed June 12, 2020, https://smarthistory.org/an-introduction-to-the-painting-of-paul-cezanne/.(1 vote)