Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) was a French painter whose work, while rooted in Impressionism, fundamentally changed the course of art history. He is widely considered the most important Post-Impressionist figure, and his systematic approach to painting influenced virtually every major modern artist who followed, including Pablo Picasso.
Early Years and Association with Impressionism
Cézanne was born in Aix-en-Provence, where he became a childhood friend of the writer Émile Zola. He moved to Paris to pursue art, where he met Camille Pissarro, who became his most important mentor. Pissarro encouraged Cézanne to adopt the Impressionist practice of painting outdoors (en plein air). Cézanne exhibited in the first and third Impressionist exhibitions, but his work was often harshly criticized for its clumsy execution and heavy application of paint.
A New Vision: Structure and Form
Frustrated by the fleeting nature of Impressionism, Cézanne moved to the south of France to pursue his own path. He famously declared that he wanted to make of Impressionism something "solid and durable, like the art of the museums." This desire led him to a revolutionary approach:
Simplification of Form: Cézanne believed that all natural forms could be reduced to their basic geometric shapes: the cylinder, the sphere, and the cone. He systematically used this idea in his still lifes, landscapes, and portraits to give his subjects permanent, architectural stability.
Multiple Perspectives: Instead of using traditional single-point perspective, Cézanne often subtly shifted his viewpoint within a single canvas. For instance, in his still lifes, the viewer might see the top of a bowl and the side of a table simultaneously. This challenged the viewer's eye and led to the fragmented, multi-viewpoint approach that became the foundation of Cubism.
Constructive Brushstrokes: He built up forms using parallel, deliberate, and often flat patches of color, known as "constructive brushstrokes." These strokes stacked together like building blocks, emphasizing both the solidity of the object and the flatness of the canvas surface itself.
Through his profound studies of Still Life, Landscape (especially Mont Sainte-Victoire), and Portraiture, Paul Cézanne achieved his goal, providing the structural logic that would pave the way for modern art in the 20th century.
