Did You Know?

Artist Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) completed nearly 200 still-life paintings in his lifetime. The early 19th century saw a decline in the popularity of still-life composition. Cezanne's love of the still-life was largely responsible for rekindling its popularity in the late 19th century. Cezanne seemed to revel in its possibilities, creating an infinitely varied series of compositions repeatedly using a small set of everyday household objects, along with fruits and vegetables. The artist was primarily interested in structure--how things are made, and rendered. So, on a certain level, it doesn’t matter to him if he was painting a still-life, a figural group, or a landscape. It was all about the structure and process for this great artist.