Cezanne

French Post - Impressionist

19th century
Focus of painting
Redefined 20th century art
Repetitive & recognisable
Small strokes, big definition
The father of Matisse and Picasso
Born on 19 January 1839
Lived in the Province of France
Oil Canvasser
Painted with oil colours
Geometrician
Structured and observated
Ideal perspectivist

Paul Cezanne 18801881

Self Portrait with
Olive Coloured
Wallpaper

Paul Czanne was a nineteenth century artist whose work

was misunderstood by his contemporaries. A shy man who
worked a great deal in Aix-en-Provence, the home town
where he was born and raised, Czanne moved Paris when
he was young and, despite his father's wishes, pursued a
career
in
art
rather
than
law.
Czanne was a modern artist whose work was a precursor
for Cubism and Fauvism. His compositions were usually
dark in tone and he often chose to work inside rather than
en
plein
air.
Czanne didn't receive critical acclaim until very late in his
life and after his first solo exhibition. He never formed
close friendships with many of his fellow artists but before
he died there was a great deal of interest in his works.

Paul Cezanne Artistic Context

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Three Skulls
Paul Cezanne

Paul Czanne's modern style and technique was avantgarde and therefore misunderstood for many years. Even
the other breakthrough artists of his era, the
Impressionists, were dismissive of Czanne's progressive
style and method. After the first Impressionist exhibition

many of them petitioned to have him banned from the

other shows because Czanne's compositions were too
controversial.
Czanne worked with thickly placed layers of paint and
undefined forms and attempted to simplify everything into
shapes that could be broken down. Although he was close
with the Impressionist Camille Pissarro, and influenced by
Pissarro's en plein air style of painting Czanne was not an
Impressionist. He was a highly modern artist who did not
fit into any one category of painting style. His style was a
precursor for the fauvism and cubism movements.

Paul Cezanne Biography

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Emile Zola
Paul Czanne, 1904:
"Drawing and color are not separate at all; in so far as you
paint, you draw. The more the color harmonizes, the more
exact the drawing becomes. When the color achieves
richness, the form attains its fullness also. The contrasts
and relations of tones - there you have the secret of
drawing and modeling".

Camille Pissarro
Charlotte Amalie

View of Auvers sur Oise

Paul Cezanne

House on a river
Paul Cezanne

Early
years:
Paul Czanne was born to a wealthy family in Aix-enProvence, France. His father was a successful banker
whose riches assisted Czanne throughout his life and his
mother was a romantic who supported her son's career.

In 1852 Czanne entered the Collge Bourbon where he

met his good friends mile Zola and Baptistin Baille. The
three were famously close for a long period of time. After a
classical education in Aix-en-Provence Paul Czanne's
father wished him to become a lawyer. However after
attending law school for two years (whilst receiving art
lessons) he could not bear the thought of continuing his
education
and
left
for
Paris.
In Paris Paul Czanne spent a large period of his time with
mile Zola, a French writer. He enrolled at the Acadmie
Suisse, which is where he met his mentor, Camille Pissarro.
After five months of trying to work as a painter in Paris,
France, to no critical success, Czanne returned to Aix-enProvence
at
his
father's
request.
In his home town Paul Czanne enrolled at the local art
school and attempted to work as a banker but was also
unsuccessful in this venture. Consequently in 1862 he
returned to Paris to work as a painter. Disappointingly he
failed the entrance exam to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts but
continued to work between Paris and Aix-en-Provence and
submitted many of his works to the Salon jury.
By this time he was good friends with Impressionist
painters Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro and had met
his future wife. However, he also had a long-term mistress
- Hortense Fiquet - and in the Prussian war Czanne and
Fiquet absconded from the Paris and stayed in L'Estaque,
France,
until
1871.
Middle
years:
In 1872 Paul Czanne was living in Pontoise, France with

Hortense Fiquet and his newborn son Paul (whom his

father did not know about). Czanne was still
enthusiastically working on his paintings and was spending
time
outside
with
his
idol,
Camille
Pissarro.
In Pontoise Paul Czanne met Dr Paul Gachet, who was an
admirer of his work and thus spent the years of 1872 to
1874 living at Gachet's home in Auvers-sur-Oise.
In 1873 Czanne met Vincent van Gogh and in 1874 he
exhibited at the Impressionist's first showcase. Czanne's
work was highly criticized along with the Impressionist's
paintings but Cezanne's paintings were disliked by the
other painters too. Czanne's compositions from this
period of working close to Camille Pissarro reveal that he
was slightly influenced by the Impressionist's en plein air
style
of
painting.
In 1877 Czanne showcased 16 of his paintings to a great
deal of scorn from critics and vowed never again to show
his work at an Impressionist's exhibition. Although still
influenced by Pissarro's Impressionist style Czanne
continued to work inside his studio and didn't believe in
always
painting
from
nature.
In the early 1880s Cezanne started to move even further
away from the Impressionist's style of painting. He fell out
with Emile Zola in 1886 because of his interpretation of
Zola's novel, L'Oeuvre, and the two never saw each other
again. In 1886 Cezanne married his mistress and inherited
a large estate from his father, meaning he never had to
worry
about
making
money
from
his
art.

Advanced
years:
In November 1895 Paul Czanne held his first solo
exhibition in Paris and Ambroise Vollard bought every
artwork. He then moved to Aix-en-Provence permanently.
In the early 1900s his work was shown all around Europe
to wide critical acclaim but throughout his life Czanne was
shy and hostile towards other painters and he maintained
this attitude. He died in October 1906 of pneumonia and is
buried in the cemetery in Aix-en-Provence.

Paul Cezanne Style and Technique

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Antony Valabrgue
Paul Cezanne

Harlequin
Paul Cezanne

Pot of Primroses with Fruit

Paul Cezanne

Paul Czanne used heavy brush strokes during his early

years and thickly layered paint onto the canvas. The
texture of the compositions is tangible and the marks of his
palette
brush
can
be
obviously
discerned.
Czanne's early work has previously been called 'violent' in
nature because of the hasty brush work. Before he became
friends with Camille Pissarro Czanne worked mainly within
his studio, painting from his imagination. However after
meeting Pissarro Czanne occasionally moved his painting
outside and began painting from nature. As a result his
style and technique became more structured although his
brushstrokes were still thick and heavy. Also, his works
became brighter in color (although he still preferred to
work
inside
with
darker
shades).
In the late 1870s the texture of Czanne's compositions
became smoother and he attempted to create form using
his paintbrush. Rather than work from sketches he was
influenced by Monet's ability to create shapes on the
canvas and applied color with big, broad strokes.
Many of Czanne's compositions were left incomplete
because of the difficulty of finishing a piece of art work. He

took months to finish any piece and his style made working
en plein air too challenging. Thus he returned to the studio
and
worked
there
instead.
In his later years his style and technique continued to shift
as
he
learned
more
about
his
craft.
Method:
Czanne was highly analytical of his subjects and perceived
them as different shapes that could be placed together to
make an overall form. He created his works slowly, building
upon each previous figure with a new outline. Using this
method it took Paul Czanne months to finish a portrait or
a still-life. This technique became such a problem that
Czanne was unable to use real flowers because they
would wilt before he was able to finish his painting.
Although Czanne did use drawings and sketches before he
placed his paintbrush to canvas a lot of the work was done
on the canvas itself. He found working from nature to be
extremely arduous and for him returning to the scene of a
landscape was often more challenging than completing the
painting itself. Czanne's complicated method of painting
explains why he often painted the same subject matter
time and time again.

Paul Cezanne Who or What Influenced

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Orchard in Bloom at Louveciennes

Camille Pissarro

Vase of Flowers
Paul Cezanne

Czanne was influenced by Impressionism in the 1870s. As

a modern artist who was being constantly rejected by the
Salon jury he felt some affinity with the group.
Furthermore although he was never an Impressionist, after
working alongside Camille Pissarro and spending time with
Claude Monet his color palette brightened up and he began
to work en plein air. Nonetheless after exhibiting with the
Impressionists twice Czanne ended his relationship with
the
group
due
to
artistic
differences.
Camille Pissarro was one of Paul Czanne's biggest
influences and after spending time with him in 1872
Czanne started to work outdoors with a wider range of
colors. He met van Gogh around this time and was also

influenced by his style. Consequently, Cezanne's brush

strokes became less dense and more fluid in style.
Compositions from this period clearly reveal that Czanne's
technique
and
subject
matter
was
becoming
Impressionistic.
Even so his interest in working indoors persisted and Paul
Czanne created a number of still-life paintings of flowers.
In the late 1870s Czanne moved away from
Impressionism for good with the use of heavy and dark
colors, and he wished to analyze the scene before him
rather than copy it as the Impressionists did.
Throughout his life Czanne became more and more
influenced by nature and particularly the beauty of his
home in Aix-en-Provence. He wanted to capture the part of
nature that was constant rather than the surface beauty
that changed with the seasons.