1839 Aix-en-Provence
1906 Aix-en-Provence

Cézanne, the son of a wealthy banker, was supposed to become a lawyer. During his short studies of law he soon developed an interest in art. In 1861 he gave up his studies to concentrate on art in Paris, but he didn't pass the entry-exam at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. Cézanne first studied the classical and Baroque masters such as Poussin and Rubens at the Louvre, but was also impressed by contemporary painters such as Delacroix, Courbet and Daumier. At the Ecole de Suisse, where he attended drawing classes, he met Camille Pissarro who introduced him to the Impressionist circle. In the aftermath he was rejected by many of the Salon's exhibitions. He was only able to sell one painting at the contra-exhibition, which was organised by the rejected impressionist artists. His friend Emile Zola, whom he met in his youth at the Collège de Bourbon, published in 1886 the novel 'L'Œuvre' about a failed artist. Thereupon Cézanne turned away from Zola. In 1870 he moved to the fishing village of L'Estaque near Marseille. His whole life the artist switched between stays in the Provence, Paris and villages of the Ile-de-France. Stylistically Cézanne continued painting in the bright palette he had learned from Pissarro, using the method of open-air painting. His late work was no longer characterised by an impressionistic atmosphere though, but by the domination of the absolutely set colour with its contrasting effects and chromatic shades. Similarly Cézanne strove for the reduction to basic geometrical forms: inconsistency of perspective and lighting and deformation of proportions were the consequence. With this process, Cézanne abandoned the Impressionist approach and strongly influenced art, especially Fauvism and Cubism. During his last ten years the artist increasingly gained recognition, the National Gallery in Berlin was the first museum to acquire a painting and in 1900 the first one-man show took place at Paul Cassirer's in Berlin, but Cèzanne withdrew more and more from public life. The last years he spent in Aix, where a studio building was built at the Chemin des Lauves in 1902. Since 1904 he imparted his art concept to young painters like Louis Le Bail, Charles Camoin or Maurice Denis. Many Modern artists et al. Kandinsky, Malevic and Giacometti were also inspired by Cézanne's image concept, painting style and his theoretical opinions, which were published since 1907.

Cézanne, Paul

Cézanne, Paul

Cézanne, Paul

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