Cézanne

Paul Cézanne - Montagne Sainte-Victoire, 1890-94, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh (click photo for larger image)Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) was a French painter, often dubbed “the father of modern art”. He strove to develop an ideal synthesis of naturalistic representation, personal expression, and abstract pictorial order. Among the artists of his day, Cézanne perhaps has had the most profound effect on the art of the twentieth century. He was the greatest single influence on both Henri Matisse, who admired his color, and Pablo Picasso, who—with Georges Braque—developed Cézanne's planar compositional structure into the cubist style. During the greater part of his own lifetime, Cézanne was largely ignored. He worked in isolation, mistrusted critics, had few friends, and, until 1895, exhibited only occasionally. He was alienated even from his family, who found his behavior peculiar and failed to appreciate his revolutionary art. Despite that, there is a gentleness and tenderness to much of Cézanne’s work. Though often described as “rustic” his art also embraces a great deal of refinement—such as the landscape featured here.