FREE ESSAY ON PAUL CEZANNE

PAUL CEZANNE

A Brief on Paul Cezanne
Paul Cezanne was born in Aix-en-Provence, a small town south of France. As a young boy,
Cezanne's passions lay in his poetry and his friends, including Emile Zola (Preble 402).
Cezanne is included in the time of the Post-Impressionists. Cezanne wanted "to make
Impressionism into something solid and enduring like the art of museums" (Preble 401).
Cezanne did not have a typical, (as I define as friendly), relationship with his father.
Cezanne had some problems with his father. Cezanne's father wanted for Cezanne to be a
lawyer. His father had sent him to a college for lawyers but Cezanne was coaxed otherwise
by his friend Zola her moved to Paris (Preble 402). Cezanne's father had bought the Jas
de Bouffan, which would be the place that Cezanne did many of his works (Rewald 21). The
Jas de Bouffan would be their residence for over a half a century. In one of Cezanne's
paintings of their residence he omits people and animals that, like in most of his
paintings, would disrupt the unchanging features of the scene (Murphy 150). Cezanne's
father was always in a struggle with his son. His father was one that could not
comprehend anyone being able to be successful in anything that did not make him or her
rich. One thing that his father had to be able to recognize was that his son had
determination, but his father was utterly blind in seeing his son's talent (Rewald 35).
When Cezanne's father died, Cezanne spoke of him as a genius for leaving him an income of
25,000 francs (Murphy 123).
Cezanne married his 12-year affair Hortense Fiquet. A few months after their marriage,
Cezanne's father died. Hortense was not welcome at the Jas de Bouffan by Cezanne's mother
and sister. People say that his mother and sister banned her from the house and they were
in a rage of giving her too much money (Murphy 117). Cezanne's sister, Marie, was the one
that encouraged the marriage, even though she disliked Hortense, in hope that in would
lift the spirits of her brother. Hortense and Cezanne did not along very well (Rewald
125). Even after their marriage, Cezanne had no thought about living the Jas or his other
and sister. Cezanne thought that 16,000 francs, which were her share, was all that she
needed (Rewald 125). 
Emile Zola was Paul's best friend. Cezanne and Zola were attracted by their shared
interest in literary movements and artists. Zola and Cezanne played an important role in
each other's life with Zola helping start Cezanne's art career and Cezanne helping Zola
to start thinking about pictorial art (Murphy 14). Cezanne at one point thought he could
write and some of his works are found in his letters to Zola:
Dark, thick unwelcome mist covers me up;
The sun withdraws its last handful of diamonds (Murphy 14).
Zola was a very important person on telling the history of Cezanne. However, their
friendship had its rocky times and its breakup by Zola. Zola can recall the complete
disorder of Cezanne's studio (Rewald 62). Zola tells us how Cezanne rarely swept the
interior of his studio for fear that the dust would disrupt his works. 
Cezanne based his work on the observation of nature and used separate strokes that were
visible to make rich surfaces (Preble 400). Cezanne tried counting on the connection
between adjacent strokes of color to show the entirety of the form and the space
decreasing. In Cezanne's The Saint Victoire from Bellevue we can see how Cezanne uses
this technique to show space and depth from a flat plane. Cezanne likes to make
alterations on nature and enlarge the mountain; Cezanne also makes spatiality more clear
and distinct than the actual photographs of the motifs (Loran 125). Cezanne seemed to be
obsessed by this mountain and somewhat exaggerated the size of it in every one of his
paintings (Murphy 154). In another view of this, entitled Mont Saint-Victoire, Cezanne
uses the tree to show height by extending it the entire length of the canvas. Cezanne
utilizes color contrasts to show depth playing with cool and warm color shifts (Schapiro
66). Cezanne painted this scene at least 60 times from every possible angle.
Cezanne had a very distinct style of painting. To move out of the style of the
broken-color of the Impressionists, Cezanne created the system of modulating the colors
from a volume of cool to warm or light to dark. He made a series of steps (Loran 25). As
the colors begin to overlap they are creating a three-dimensional image. Cezanne very
seldom ever made a line around his paintings (Loran 26). Cezanne would make the lines
virtually disappear off the edge thus creating more volume. This would make Cezanne's
paintings pass to the negative or the background (Loran 26). This technique can be seen
in Cezanne's Still Life with Apples, a Bottle, and a Milk Pot (Rewald 253). In this
painting we are able to see the way Cezanne literally escapes the use of encompassing
lines. Cezanne loses the edges in this painting producing an image of it pass into the
background. 
Let us return to the color modulation that Cezanne created. Color balance was one final
aim for Cezanne. Cezanne's light sources are moderately consistent and his shadows are a
very important element to his color (Loran 28). Cezanne was known to work on several
canvases at one time changing from one to the other depending on the time of day or the
location of the sun. One of his paintings that express this color balance is Chestnut
Trees and Farmhouse at the Jas de Bouffan (Rewald 150). In this painting Cezanne is also
building on the volumes, which leads us to the next perspective on his work.
Cezanne used "lines" to create planes, but he used planes to create volume. If every
artist can agree on one thing, it is that Cezanne achieved volume (Loran 27). In
Cezanne's The Quarry Called Bibemus, the volume is accentuated. Cezanne relies on
warm-to-cold contrasts and overlapping forms to give the volume instead of linear and
aerial perspective (Murphy 81). The color contrast between the bright green tree and the
orange rock make the space perfectly clear without the use of lines (Loran 71). 
Cezanne had problems with perspective. In his Road to Gardanne, Cezanne drastically
changes the scene in order to organize space. Cezanne compresses the size of the
foreground and makes the road with a sharper turn. Cezanne also reduces the size of the
trees immensely, but increases the size of the bridge immensely (Loran 48). This same
technique is also used in Mardi Gras and Harlequin. This is one of his monumental works
in which he struggles with his space organization. His son, Paul, posed for the paintings
as Harlequin (Murphy 108). In this photo Cezanne shows his struggle of space by adding
sections to the plane. We can see a crinkle in the canvas area of the ankle and toe of
Harlequin. 
Cezanne also caused distortions in his paintings that were merely accidental. Due to the
fact that Cezanne would still be scheming his paintings distortion was often made (Loran
29). We can see this in his artwork entitled Women Bathers (Schapiro 117). We can see in
this painting how the head of one of the women is distorted and somewhat absent from the
painting. His distortion was sometimes just considered a lack of dexterity and manual
skill, which he later mastered. It is said that because Cezanne had not reduced himself
to simple abstract shapes there were distortions. He was still trying to capture the
realistic look by smudging and smearing (Loran 95). The painting's distortion can also be
explained by the fact that he did all canvases at one time which did not allow him much
accuracy on the human figure. Much distortion can be seen in the painting of another
Bathers (Rewald 87). In this painting, the bathers can not even be distinguished without
reading the name.
In Cezanne's L'Estaque, Cezanne is showing how he unifies the foreground and background
of some of his paintings (Schapiro 63). Unlike the original picture of this scene where
the foreground and background are clearly separate, Cezanne's paintings unify hem into
one, so that they merge to look continuous with one another. Cezanne is losing the aerial
perspective that is held highly among the Impressionists (Loran 106). 
Works Cited
1Loran, Erle. Cezanne's Composition: Analysis of His Form with Diagrams and Photographs
of his Motifs. University of California Press, 1970.
2Murphy, Richard W. The World of Cezanne : 1839-1906. Time-Life Books, Inc., 1968.
3Preble, Duane, Preble, Sarah, and Frank, Patrick, Artforms: An Introduction to the
Visual Arts. "Late Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries". Addison Wesley Longman, 1999.
4Rewald, John. Cezanne: A Biography. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1986.
5Schapiro, Meyer. Paul Cezanne. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1952.
Bibliography
1Loran, Erle. Cezanne's Composition: Analysis of His Form with Diagrams and Photographs
of his Motifs. University of California Press, 1970.
2Murphy, Richard W. The World of Cezanne : 1839-1906. Time-Life Books, Inc., 1968.
3Preble, Duane, Preble, Sarah, and Frank, Patrick, Artforms: An Introduction to the
Visual Arts. "Late Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries". Addison Wesley Longman, 1999.
4Rewald, John. Cezanne: A Biography. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1986.
5Schapiro, Meyer. Paul Cezanne. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1952.