(i) Early period, before 1872.

Cézanne studied from c. 1849 to 1852 at the Ecole Saint-Joseph and from 1852 to 1858 at the Collège Bourbon, both in Aix-en-Provence. At the latter, in about 1852, he met Emile Zola, who was to become his closest friend. In 1857 he enrolled at the Ecole Municipale de Dessin in Aix-en-Provence, where he studied under Joseph Gibert (1806–1884). In 1859, following his father’s wishes, he began to study law at the Université d’Aix. The same year his father bought the estate Le Jas de Bouffan, near Aix, where Cézanne set up a studio and worked frequently throughout his life. He also attended the Ecole Municipale de Dessin again for the academic years 1858–1859, 1859–1860, and 1860–1861. In 1861 he abandoned his law studies and, wishing to become a painter, he moved to Paris in April of that year. There he met up with Zola and worked at the Académie Suisse, where he became acquainted with Camille Pissarro. He considered this first stay unsuccessful, however, and, having repeatedly thought of leaving, in September he went back to Aix and enrolled at the local drawing school. He returned to Paris in November 1862, where he again attended the Académie Suisse. While in Paris he copied works by Titian, Giorgione, Veronese, Rubens, Delacroix, Courbet, and others at the Louvre but failed the entrance examination for the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. In 1863 he likely visited the Salon des Refusés where Manet, Legros, Jongkind, and others were exhibiting, and during their first meeting, in 1866, Manet praised his still lifes. Cézanne submitted works for the Salon every year at this time but was refused on each occasion. Extremely disappointed, he moved continually between Aix and Paris from 1864 to 1870. In 1869 he met a young model, Hortense Fiquet, then 19 years old, who became his mistress, and in 1870, when war was declared with Prussia, he took refuge with her in L’Estaque, near Marseille, where his mother owned a house. He returned to Paris in the autumn of 1871, after the fall of the Commune.

For the early period the problem of establishing the chronology of Cézanne’s work is compounded by the fact that some pieces were destroyed by Cézanne himself, or by his father, which makes an exact analysis difficult. Of the remaining paintings, with the exception of portraits and still lifes, many are expressively executed in dark colors and inspired by violent, dramatic themes of murder and sexual aggression. They are full of exuberance and intensity, and the style is impetuous, the rhythm lively, and the paint thick. At this time Cézanne was attempting to forge a personal technique, and the works are therefore quite varied in style. The imaginary paintings reflect his studies of the Old Masters and in particular of Delacroix, whom he greatly admired. There are a few surviving copies of works from this period, the most faithful being after paintings by Delacroix (e.g. Barque of Dante, c. 1864–1870; New York, NY, priv. col., see Gowing 1988–1989, 79).

One of Cézanne’s most remarkable early paintings is The Abduction (1867; Cambridge, King’s Coll., on loan to Cambridge, Fitzwilliam), which he gave to Zola. Set against a carefully painted, dark-green background, the two large naked figures that dominate the scene create a striking image of force and dynamism. The Black Scipio (c. 1867; São Paulo, Mus. A. Mod.) depicts a model from the Académie Suisse, whom Cézanne must have painted in his own studio. Painted in long, sinuous brushstrokes, the work belonged to Monet, who called it a “fragment of raw power.” The violence of many of the early works is particularly evident in The Murder (c. 1870; Liverpool, Walker A.G.), in which the turbulent technique enhances the impact of the subject. A Modern Olympia (or The Pasha, c. 1869–1870; priv. col., see Gowing 1988–1989, 151) was painted in reference to Manet’s celebrated picture Olympia (1863; Paris, Mus. Orsay), which had caused a scandal at the Salon of 1865. In his version, Cézanne used strong, striking colors and a composition in which the various planes overlap to create a swirling and unstable movement, full of impetuosity and intensity. In homage to Manet and in reference to Spanish art, he employed a palette of blacks that accentuates the stridency of the coloration. The acknowledgment is somewhat equivocal, however: the title suggests that the work is a modernization of Manet’s original. Both Cézanne and Zola believed that art should be marked by the temperament of the artist, and so, in addition to his more expressive style, Cézanne likely painted himself in the foreground of the picture, gazing at the female figures. Thus, in contrast to the more reticent approach of Manet, Cézanne imposed his personality directly on the work both through style and content. This attitude is again apparent in Young Girl at the Piano: Overture to Tannhäuser (c. 1869–1870; St. Petersburg, Hermitage), in which the reference to Richard Wagner’s music prompts associations with powerful, abundant emotion and thus implicitly with the artistic personality. Also in this work Cézanne included the circle and arabesque forms that he developed more fully in later paintings.

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Paul Cézanne: Man with a Cloth Cap (or Dominique Aubert, the Artist’s Uncle), oil on canvas, 31 3/8 x 25 1/4 in. (79.7 x 64.1 cm), 1866 (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Wolfe Fund, 1951; acquired from The Museum of Modern Art, Lillie P. Bliss Collection, Accession ID: 53.140.1); photo © The Metropolitan Museum of Art http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/110000303

Cézanne painted several portraits in this early period, mostly of family members and the close friends in his circle: fellow artists, but also poets, journalists, and natural scientists with whom he corresponded frequently. In contrast to the passion and violence of his imaginative works these have a notable sobriety and detachment. Nevertheless, the colors are often vivid and the paint thickly impastoed with a palette knife. One of his favorite models was his mother’s brother, Uncle Dominique, of whom he made several portraits (e.g. Man with a Cloth Cap (Uncle Dominique), c. 1866; New York, Met.), and he also painted his father (e.g. Louis-Auguste Cézanne Reading “L’Evénement” (1866; Washington, DC, N.G.A.). One of the most moving portraits is that of his short painter friend Achille Emperaire (c. 1868–1870; Paris, Mus. Orsay), which was refused by the Salon of 1870. Painted life-size and in strongly contrasting colors, it shows the artist seated in an armchair with his fragile legs resting on a low stool. Throughout his life Cézanne also produced self-portraits: an early example (1862–1864; New York, NY, priv. col., see Gowing 1988–1989, 73) is imbued with the same passion evident in the other works of this period. Executed in a dark palette highlighted with flecks of red, the artist looks out at the viewer with an intense, penetrating gaze in a self-portrait typical of Romanticism.

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Paul Cézanne: Achille Emperaire, oil on canvas, 2.00 × 1.20 m, c. 1868–70 (Paris, Musée Orsay); Photo credit: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY

Though they constitute the greater part of his subsequent work, Cézanne produced few landscapes in this early period. The most important is The Cutting (c. 1869–1870; Munich, Neue Pin.), which already reveals his dislike for deep, one-point perspective. The undulating landscape elements are repeated in layers in the composition, while the imposing bulk of Mont Sainte-Victoire, which dominates Aix and was later a favorite subject of Cézanne, is painted as clearly and solidly as the features in the foreground. The landscape rises up towards the top corners of the picture, so introducing a strong equilibrium into the work in a format that he repeated in the following few years. He began to study nature in earnest only during his trip to L’Estaque in 1870–1871. It is often maintained that Cézanne “hid” from possible conscription into the Franco-Prussian War and later from the Commune during this time, and that most of his oeuvre has a rather apolitical character, but during these years a number of patriotic references can be found in his work, including drawings for an allegory of the Republic and a tricolor added to a painting referred to as The Conversation (1870–1871; Paris, priv. col., see 2017 exh. cat., 267).

Of all his early works, it was primarily in his still lifes that Cézanne adumbrated the themes and concerns that he developed in more detail later. One of the most masterly of these is the Black Clock (c. 1867–70; Stavros Niarchos priv. col., see Gowing 1988–1989, 169). It depicts the top of a mantelpiece partly covered by a tablecloth with starched and rigid creases. On this several objects are arranged: a large shell with a glaring pink opening, a coffee cup with a black rim, a single glass vase, a vivid yellow lemon, a black clock (without hands) that belonged to Zola, and a square pottery vessel.

(ii) Impressionist period, 1872–1882.

In 1872, the year of the birth of their son Paul, Cézanne went to live at Pontoise with Hortense. (He hid the existence of his family from his father, who discovered the situation only in 1878 and reduced Cézanne’s financial aid as a result.) There he worked outdoors alongside Pissarro and also met Dr. Paul Gachet, a collector and friend of the Impressionists. From late 1872 or early 1873 until 1874, together with his family, he stayed in Gachet’s house at Auvers-sur-Oise, again working with Pissarro. In 1874 he participated in the First Impressionist Exhibition at the studio of the photographer Nadar in Paris. Of all the artists showing work at the exhibition, Cézanne received particular criticism in the press, and some painters, fearing this, had wished to have him excluded from the show. After the Romantic and Baroque style of his early period, from 1872 Cézanne turned to a more Impressionist aesthetic while working with Pissarro at Pontoise and while at Auvers-sur-Oise. This interest in nature and the move away from the turbulent early style are expressed in the calm Self-portrait (1872; Paris, Mus. Orsay), which includes a landscape in the background. During his time with Pissarro, Cézanne painted the House of the Hanged Man (1873; Paris, Mus. Orsay), which was exhibited at the First Impressionist Exhibition. The structure and density of the forms are the essential qualities of this painting, in which Cézanne shows himself very close to the works of the older artist. The subject, the composition, and the clear color testify to the proximity of conception and execution between the works of Cézanne and his Impressionist friends. He worked outdoors and made studies of his subjects, marking a distinct difference from the methods used in his early works. Cézanne also exhibited a second version of the Modern Olympia (1873–1874; Paris, Mus. Orsay) at the First Impressionist Exhibition. This was executed in much looser, more fluid brushstrokes than the earlier version and thus reflects his new style, though it also reveals his continued interest in imaginative subjects.

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Paul Cézanne: House of the Hanged Man, oil on canvas, 550 × 660 mm, 1873 (Paris, Musée Orsay); photo credit: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY

Cézanne was working in Aix at the time of the Second Impressionist Exhibition in 1876 and so did not take part in it, but for the third, in 1877, he submitted sixteen works. While there had been a slight softening in the attitudes of some critics towards the work of other participants, Cézanne was again singled out for ridicule, and his portrait of the collector Victor Chocquet (1876–1877; priv. col., see Rewald 1936, Eng. trans. 1986, 117) was particularly attacked. He was deeply hurt by this reaction and resolved to take no part in further group shows with his Impressionist friends. Given the repeated failure of his works to be accepted at the Salon, this decision closed off the only form of access to the public available to him at that time. While the Impressionists devoted themselves primarily to plein-air painting, during the period of his flirtation with Impressionism Cézanne continued to paint some imaginary subjects and such still lifes as Overturned Fruit Basket (1873–1877; Glasgow A.G. & Mus.). In particular he produced a number of flower paintings (e.g. Green Vase, 1873–1877; Philadelphia, PA, Mus. A.), and this sustained interest in studio painting reflects his cautious approach to the Impressionist aesthetic. This hesitation is furthermore evidenced by the fact that Cézanne chose to adopt Pissarro’s form of Impressionism, which was not as light and spontaneous as, for example, that of Monet: Pissarro built up his works by the careful application of brushstrokes. Nevertheless, his influence on Cézanne lent a greater immediacy to the younger painter’s style, as well as encouraging him to work outside.

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Paul Cézanne: Bathers, oil on canvas, 15 x 18 1/8 in. (38.1 x 46 cm), 1874–75 (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bequest of Joan Whitney Payson, 1975, Accession ID: 1976.201.12); photo © The Metropolitan Museum of Art http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/110000300

In the mid-1870s Cézanne produced his first works on the theme of bathers, a subject that interested him increasingly thereafter (see fig.). He depicted groups, placed in landscape settings, of female bathers (e.g. Three Women Bathers, 1875–1877) and of male bathers (e.g. Bathers at Rest, 1875–1876; both Philadelphia, PA, Barnes Found.), the latter recalling his boyhood days spent bathing with Zola and their friend Baptistin Baille. Probably on account of the difficulty and cost of using models in provincial Aix, Cézanne constantly reused figures in these works (as he also did in his later works on the theme). Thus the female figure on the far left in Three Women Bathers (1879–1882; Paris, Petit Pal.) is the same as that in Five Women Bathers (1879–1882; Philadelphia, PA, Barnes Found.). In 1878 Cézanne went to live with Hortense and their son in L’Estaque, where he worked again in 1879. Also in 1878, Zola bought a house at Médan, on the Seine near Paris, and from 1879 to 1882 Cézanne made annual visits there. In Paris in 1880 he met Gauguin (V. Merlhès, ed.: Correspondance de Paul Gauguin, Paris, 1984, 350–351), and from May to October 1881 he worked in Pontoise with Pissarro. In 1882 Cézanne stayed at L’Estaque, where Renoir visited him, and in October 1882 he returned to work in Aix at Le Jas de Bouffan. Between c. 1878 and 1882 Cézanne moved away from the style of other Impressionist painters in search of greater structure, as shown in Bridge at Maincy (1879; Paris, Mus. Orsay), where flat areas of color in large, geometric brushstrokes cover the surface of the canvas. Water is used for its density rather than the reflective, shimmering surface that so appealed to the Impressionists. Zola’s House at Médan (c. 1880; Glasgow, Burrell Col.) is also executed in careful, parallel brushstrokes, examples of the so-called constructive stroke.

(iii) Period of synthesis, 1883–c. 1895.

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Paul Cézanne: The Gulf of Marseilles Seen from L’Estaque, oil on canvas, 28 3/4 x 39 1/2 in. (73 x 100.3 cm), c. 1885 (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929, Accession ID: 29.100.67); photo © The Metropolitan Museum of Art http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/110000305

During this period Cézanne placed the accent more on mass and structure, and his composition consequently became more architectural. This continued move away from Impressionism was motivated by his belief that the painter must interpret as well as record the scene before him, resulting in paintings that rest at the intersection of observation from nature and emphasis on independent pictorial means. The role of the brain was as important as that of the eye and the two must work in harmony, an attitude implicit in his comment on Monet: “He is nothing but an eye, yet what an eye!” From 1883 to 1885 Cézanne executed the core of his work at Aix and at L’Estaque, where he was visited by Renoir and Monet in December 1883. The intense light of L’Estaque sharply outlines forms, and Cézanne spent months painting different views of the landscape there. He simplified and synthesized the scenes in compositions built up of verticals, horizontals, and diagonals, as in Rocks at L’Estaque (1883–1885; São Paulo, Mus. A. Mod.). These works attest to the profound modification that he brought to his conception of landscape, in which he broke with the traditional conception of successive planes defining depth of field. He emphasized the foreground by using asymmetrically framed views. His brushstrokes became broader and thicker, and sometimes the use of a palette knife can be seen. L’Estaque also inspired most of Cézanne’s landscapes representing the sea, such as Gulf of Marseille Seen from L’Estaque (1883–1885; New York, Met.). Little life animates these views, and the sea, which is almost always enclosed by the land and hills, is treated rather like a mirror, an immobile—as if vitrified—surface. Cézanne painted Mont Sainte-Victoire most concentratedly from the mid-1880s up to his death. He produced many variants, including about thirty paintings and many watercolors, in which rhythm, form, and color are indissolubly unified. The most detailed and precise works were those done around 1884–1888, such as Mont Sainte-Victoire (1885–1887; London, U. London, Courtauld Inst. Gals), while other, more visionary versions followed until his last years. Presenting a clear geometric form, Cézanne studied the mountain for the structure of its various planes, which are cleanly delimited in broad facets of a rigorous equilibrium. His sustained interest in the mountain and other aspects of the local geography, as well as frequent other references to the traditions of Aix and its environs, testify to the fact that Cézanne’s art participates in the broader preservation efforts of Provençal history, culture, and life that saw their first heyday during the second half of the 19th century.

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Paul Cézanne: Rocks in the Forest, oil on canvas, 28 7/8 x 36 3/8 in. (73.3 x 92.4 cm), 1890s (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929, Accession ID: 29.100.194); photo © The Metropolitan Museum of Art http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/110000313

In March 1886 Cézanne fell out with Zola following the publication of the latter’s novel L’Oeuvre in Paris: Cézanne thought he recognized himself in the principal figure Claude Lantier, a failed artist who commits suicide. Cézanne never saw Zola again. In April 1886 he married Hortense with the consent of his father, who died on October 23, leaving Cézanne a large inheritance, and from 1886 until his death he divided his time mainly between Paris and Aix. In 1888 he worked for a time in Chantilly and in 1889 exhibited with Les XX in Brussels, writing to its organizer, Octave Maus, that: “I had made up my mind to work in silence … until the time when I would feel able to back up theoretically the fruits of my research” (Correspondance, 227). At this time Cézanne seems to have emerged from his isolation and solitude. In 1890 he spent five months in Switzerland with his family, his only period abroad. He worked in the forest of Fontainebleau at various times in the following few years, and it was probably there that he painted Rocks in the Forest (c. 1894; New York, Met.). In 1894 he visited Monet at Giverny, where he met Auguste Rodin, the journalist and politician Georges Clemenceau, and the writer Gustave Geffroy, and in 1895 he painted views of the Bibémus Quarry, near Aix, and of Mont Sainte-Victoire.

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Paul Cézanne: Still life with Bowl of Fruit, oil on canvas, 1893–4 (private collection); photo credit: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY

Throughout this synthetic period Cézanne painted numerous still lifes that reflect his constructive concerns at this time (see fig.). In Still Life (1883–1887; Cambridge, MA, Fogg) he used a dark background, as he had in earlier works, and, as in many still lifes, he also included a tablecloth to provide tonal contrast and to add structure through the creases and folds. Such later works of this period as Still Life with Basket of Apples (1890–1894; Chicago, IL, A. Inst.) are executed in brighter, more luminous colors. The light blue background tends to flatten the picture space, an aspect further emphasized by the raising of the composition towards the viewer.

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Paul Cézanne: Madame Cézanne (Hortense Fiquet, 1850–1922) in a Red Dress, oil on canvas, 45 7/8 x 35 1/4 in. ( 116.5 x 89.5 cm), ca. 1890 (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ittleson Jr. Purchase Fund, 1962, Accession ID: 62.45); photo © The Metropolitan Museum of Art http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/110000309

Hortense was a frequent subject of Cézanne’s portrait works. In Mme Cézanne in a Yellow Chair (1890; Chicago, IL, A. Inst.) she is depicted as calm and fashionably dressed in a typical image of a bourgeois woman (see fig.). Among numerous other interior scenes from this period is the Boy with a Red Vest (c. 1895; Zurich, Stift. Samml. Bührle), in which all the volumes are created through the articulation of planes, the various facets being used to underpin the structure. The right arm of the young boy is deliberately elongated and deformed, so enhancing the sense of the sitter’s relaxation and emphasizing the compositional lines: the curve of the back, the bent left arm, the diagonals of the curtain and table, and the horizontal of the wall paneling.

Cézanne had not entirely given up his interest in imaginary subjects and in the late 1880s he produced a number of paintings of Harlequin (version, c. 1888–1890; Washington, DC, N.G.A.). He also painted several more images of bathers (e.g. Five Women Bathers, 1885–1887; Zurich, Kstmus.) in which the figures became more simplified, statuesque, and integrated with the landscape. From whatever period, in all his treatments of this subject the trees and the sky form the main part of the setting, while the water remains a scarcely visible element. Among the most important works of the period of synthesis is the series of paintings of Card Players. According to the daughter of one of the models, these were begun in 1890, the year usually accepted as the starting date. The most important versions are those held at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, PA, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Courtauld Institute Galleries in London, and the Musée Orsay in Paris. These differ in the framing, in the number of figures and in the coloring, and various theories have been proposed regarding the respective datings. The most probable progression places the brighter, multi-figure works (Philadelphia, PA, Barnes Found., and New York, Met.; see fig.) earlier than the dark, two-figure works (London, U. London, Courtauld Inst. Gals; Qatar, priv. col.; and Paris, Mus. Orsay; see fig.). The most famous, the Orsay version, is perhaps the last and thus datable in 1894–1895 in keeping with the subsequent development of Cézanne’s work (Reff 1977–1978, 17). In this final painting a great tension is generated by the forms and poses of the figures, who face one another against a dark field in an enclosed space, creating a deeply mysterious image.

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Paul Cézanne: Card Players, oil on canvas, 1890–95 (Paris, Musée Orsay); Photo credit: Réunion des Musées Nationaux/ Art Resource, NY

(iv) Late period, c. 1895–1906.

In November 1895 Cézanne had his first solo show, of about 150 works, at Ambroise Vollard’s gallery in Paris. Two years later, in 1897, Vollard bought everything in Cézanne’s studio near Corbeil. In 1898 Cézanne worked near Aix at the Château Noir, and in 1899 he sold Le Jas de Bouffan and settled into a flat in Aix, while his wife and son remained in Paris. In 1901 he bought land at Les Lauves, on a hill dominating Aix, where he built a studio, which he settled into the following year. Having spent most of the time since his Impressionist period away from the public, in these last years Cézanne exhibited widely, and his reputation grew. In 1899 Paul Durand-Ruel bought many of his works at the Victor Chocquet sale (July 1–4, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris) and in 1890 the same dealer sent twelve pictures to Berlin, where Paul Cassirer organized Cézanne’s first solo show in Germany, though the pictures remained unsold. In 1899, 1901, and 1902 Cézanne exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants; in 1901 and 1904 he showed works with La Libre Esthétique in Brussels; in 1903 seven of his pictures were shown by the Secession in Vienna; and in 1904, 1905, and 1906 he exhibited at the Salon d’Automne, where in 1904 a whole room was devoted to his paintings.

Cézanne’s lyrical works from this late period are characterized by more vibrant colors and a greater articulation of volumes into facets. In his landscapes Cézanne emphasized the rough appearance of sites, mixing wild vegetation with rocks in unusual, asymmetric framings. His composition became less serene and his color more vivid. In the foreground he often incorporated red-orange rocks, inspired by those of the Bibémus Quarry and the estate of Château Noir. At these locations he scrupulously studied the overlapping of trees and rocks that sprang from the earth, demonstrating a deep familiarity with the local geology, as shown in Bibémus Quarry (c. 1895; Essen, Mus. Flkwang), where the huge blocks of red rock create lines of tumbling diagonals, giving the work a sense of instability. The works of the same scenes from the early 1900s have an even greater turbulence created through the fragmented manner of execution as well as the composition, as in Château Noir (1900–1904; Washington, DC, N.G.A.). Even in the last years of his life Cézanne pursued his quest after nature untiringly, and in a letter of 29 January 1904 to Louis Aurenche he wrote of “a long day spent grappling with the difficulties of expressing nature” (Correspondance, 294).

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Paul Cézanne: Mont Sainte-Victoire, oil on canvas, 22 1/2 x 38 1/4 in. (57.2 x 97.2 cm), ca. 1902–6 (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg Collection, Gift of Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg, 1994, Bequest of Walter H. Annenberg, 2002, Accession ID:1994.420); photo © The Metropolitan Museum of Art http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/110000311

The most extraordinary landscapes of the late period are the series of paintings of Mont Sainte-Victoire that Cézanne produced from 1900 until his death (see fig.). Composed of discrete patches of color, the landscape becomes more illegible beneath the intricate surface pattern of brushstrokes, showing a tendency towards abstraction, as in Mont Sainte-Victoire Seen From Les Lauves (1904–1906; Basle, Kstmus.). Many contain areas of intense blue, especially in the depiction of the sky (e.g. Mont Sainte-Victoire, 1902–1906; Philadelphia, PA, Mus. A.). His analytical approach, coupled with his treatment of unpopulated natural scenes, distances the works from human activity. One of Cézanne’s most famous statements, in a letter to Emile Bernard of April 15, 1904, describes this analytical method (Correspondance, 296):

Deal with nature as cylinders, spheres and cones, all placed in perspective so that each aspect of an object or a plane goes towards a central point. … Now, for us men, nature consists more of depth than of surface, whence the need to introduce into our vibrations of light, represented by reds and yellows, a sufficient amount of shades of blue to make the air felt.

Cézanne did not aim at a traditional representation of nature; he rather sought, above all, to express the idea of the internal construction of that which he had before him, to capture the unchanging element beneath the surface: “Nature is always the same, but of that aspect which appears to us, nothing lasts. Our art must give to it the frisson of its duration with the elements, the semblance of all these changes.” Though speaking of a different motif, his ability to work at the same subject in so many works is explained in a letter he wrote to his son Paul on 8 September 1906 (Correspondance, 322):

Here, on the river bank, there are so many motifs, the same subject seen from another angle offers a subject of the most compelling interest and so varied that I believe I could work away for months without changing position, but by just leaning a little to the right and then a little to the left.

In several of the late works of Mont Sainte-Victoire, as well as in many other works of the period, Cézanne left parts of the canvas bare. Some of these paintings, such as Mont Sainte-Victoire (1904–1906; Zurich, Ksthaus) and Cabanon de Jourdan (1906; Rome, G.N.A. Mod.), are executed with extremely diluted oils. Undoubtedly Cézanne’s investigations in the domain of watercolor (see §2 below) influenced this oil painting technique, as Fry (1927) and then Venturi (1943) noticed, leading to the explosive liberation in the last works: greater rapidity of execution, lightness, and fluidity. Some considered these works unfinished, and Cézanne explained this aspect of his work in a letter to Bernard on 23 October 1905 (Correspondance, 313): “The sensations of color that light gives create abstractions that don’t let me cover my canvas or follow the outlines of objects when the points of contact are tenuous, delicate; thus my image or picture is incomplete.” Here Cézanne broke with the long-established tradition of highly finished and perfected paintings, at that time still the only recognized goal. He therefore presaged the later interest in the art of non-finish. In Garden at Les Lauves (1904–1906; Washington, DC, Phillips Col.) these tendencies are particularly evident: several areas of canvas are exposed and the rest covered with large, separate color marks, leading to a near dissolution of the subject. Another bold innovation of the late works is found in Cézanne’s expression of space, which is most apparent in such still lifes as Still Life with Onions (1896–1898; Paris, Mus. Orsay). He abandoned classical perspective for good: there were no longer any vanishing lines. Ignoring single-point perspective, he contrived multiple viewpoints inside the picture space. This gave each object several facets, a process later extended by the Cubists. Subjected to multiple distortions, objects lose their spatial depth but are emphasized by wide rings of dark or red-orange color. Tables covered with draperies or tablecloths, on which objects are set, lose their relief in relation to the other planes of the picture, and appear to topple forward.

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Paul Cézanne: Mont Sainte-Victoire, oil on canvas, 1904–6 (Zurich, Kunsthaus); Photo credit: Scala/Art Resource, NY

Cézanne told his dealer, Vollard, that: “The result of art is the figure.” However, with Victor Chocquet, Vollard was one of the rare collectors to commission his own portrait from the artist. After over one hundred sittings Cézanne apparently abandoned the resulting work, Ambroise Vollard (1899; Paris, Petit Pal.), claiming that the only thing he was not dissatisfied with was the shirt front. His slow work rate and need for so many sittings partly explain why most of his late portraits are of anonymous figures, such as Man with a Pipe Leaning on a Table (1895–1900; Mannheim, Städt. Ksthalle), Man with Folded Arms (1895–1900; New York, Guggenheim), and the various Card Players. They also reflect the fact that Cézanne approached his sitters as if they were still lifes (he wanted Vollard to sit like an apple); his prime concern was not so much their identity as the compositional problems they presented. In his last years Cézanne also painted several portraits of Vallier (version, 1902–1906; London, Tate), his gardener at Les Lauves. Probably his last portrait is Self-portrait with a Beret (c. 1898–1900; Boston, MA, Mus. F.A.), which is composed of large, flat areas of color and has a complete lack of superfluous detail. He presents himself as serene and magisterial, seated against a plain background.

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Paul Cézanne: Large Bathers, oil on canvas, 2.08 × 2.49 m, 1906 (Philadelphia, PA, Museum of Art); photo credit: The Philadelphia Museum of Art/Art Resource, NY

The culmination of Cézanne’s images of bathers was the series of Large Bathers (London, N.G.; Philadelphia, PA, Barnes Found.; Philadelphia, PA, Mus. A.; see fig.). These were painted between 1894, and 1906 in overlapping periods, during which the framing, color, and background settings were altered. As with the Card Players, the chronology of the series is not clear, though it seems most probable that the version in the Barnes Foundation was started first, then that in the National Gallery in London and finally that in the Museum of Art in Philadelphia. This suggests datings of c. 1894–1906, c. 1900–1906, and c. 1906 respectively (Reff 1977–1978, 38–44; Krumrine 1989; Rishel 1995–1996, 497–505). Thus, in contrast to the Card Players series, where the number of figures was reduced, in these works the number of bathers went from eight to eleven to fourteen. The compressed arrangement of figures in the first two versions gives way to the more spacious composition of the last, in which the bathers are ordered in two pyramidal groupings, a geometry echoed by the triangular vault of trees above them. The static composition in this last version creates a serenity that is further enhanced by the predominant use of blue. As in the preceding bather works, Cézanne frequently repeated the poses of the figures in this series and likewise painted them with few individual features, even overlapping and blending some of their bodies. Contemporaneously with these large works he painted a number of smaller images of the same subject, as in Bathers (1895–1898; Aix-en-Provence, Mus. Granet), in which many of the poses resemble those in the first of the Large Bathers.

In his late works Cézanne maintained his fascination for nature and at the same time sought a means to express himself through it, as he remarked to Louis Aurenche on 24 January 1904 (Correspondance, 294): “If a strong feeling for nature—and mine is certainly intense—is the necessary basis for any artistic concept, upon which rest the grandeur and beauty of future work, a knowledge of the means of expressing our emotion is no less essential and can only be gained through long experience.” In these works “the objective sought is no longer to describe reality but to express a spiritual concept” (Rewald 1978, 198). Cézanne’s late works reveal him to be at the turning-point of two eras, of two worlds. This is especially true of the Large Bathers, which foreshadows Cubism, particularly Picasso’s Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907; New York, MOMA).