These are the 12 most famous paintings by Paul Cézanne. Paul Cézanne (1839–1906), a French painter, was one of the most significant Post-Impressionists, influencing the aesthetics of several twentieth-century artists and art movements, including Cubism. He was the first artist of his generation to move away from Impressionism on purpose and with success.
Biography of Paul Cezanne
Early life
Cézanne came from a wealthy banker family and studied at the Collége Bourbon of his native city, Aix-en-Provence, where he made the friendship of Émile Zola, his classmate. He then took drawing classes at the city’s École des Beaux-Arts. He pursued an artistic career against his father’s wish that he become a banker (in view of which Cézanne had also studied law for some time).
For the entirety of his life a series of allowances and, finally, a rich inheritance from his father would enable Cézanne to keep on practising his art in the teeth of rejections from the artistic establishment. His patrimony represented an exception among the mostly indigent artists of the alternative, late-19th-century currents.
Paul Cézanne & Camille Pissarro
Paul Cézanne’s acquaintance with Camille Pissarro in 1861 in Paris (destined to last for the rest of his life) led Cézanne to a study of landscapes, with the two painters making countryside expeditions together.
Cézanne considered Pissarro a master, at one point stating that his generation of artists stems from Pissarro. (He also stated that they all had their origin in Eugene Delacroix.) With Pissarro, Cézanne mastered the distinctive landscapist technique of en plein air painting, so dear to the Impressionist movement.
Exhibitions & the Salon
He similarly began seeking luminous colour and the meaningful ephemeral moment. Through Pissarro, Cézanne then entered the Impressionist circle and took part in the improvised inaugural exhibition of 1874. He would take part in their third exhibition as well (1877) before beginning to consciously separate from the Impressionist project and idea from 1879.
Like Édouard Manet, Cézanne all his life actively sought the acceptance of the official Salon. His only success came in 1882, when the mediation of his friend and artist Antoine Guillemet allowed him to exhibit one of his characteristic portraits. He also attracted the sympathy of the art collector Victor Chocquet, a rare commissioner for Cézanne.
Like Manet again, Paul Cézanne suffered the ostentatious ridicule of the urban middle-class public whenever his paintings came to be shown. While the criticism of Manet (for his Luncheon on the Grass, for example) was above all technical and the derision confined to the critics and the exhibition-attending audiences, Cézanne was actively reviled by the people of his home city too, who went so far as to post letters inviting him to go away.
His friendship with Zola may have been affected by Zola’s novel L’Œuvre, fully published in 1886, where the character of a failed artist was modelled in part on Cézanne.
Cézanne & Impressionism
At the middle of his career, Paul Cézanne was being tarred with the charge of Impressionism by that part of the public which employed the term disparagingly against every unconventional artistic style of the age. His esteem was not being helped by the absence of resounding critical appreciation, and his geometric and stain-like style was not particularly attractive on its own.
With respect to this blatant rejection by public opinion, Cézanne evinced a noteworthy endurance. He pursued the development of a personal style based on a series of clear convictions from the time he abandoned the Impressionists till the moment of his premature death in 1906 at the age of 67.
Legacy and impact on Impressionism and Post-Impressionism
In the last two decades of his life, Cézanne was widely considered a reference for the younger generation of artists. In the few years before his death, the Staatliche Museen in Berlin purchased one of his paintings while the official Salon gave him an exclusive exhibition.
Cézanne’s painting style
Cézanne distinguished himself from the Impressionists by his keen desire to reintroduce voluminous shapes into paintings inspired by the perceptions of a moment. It was an attempt, as he said, of “treating nature according to the cylinder, the sphere, and the cone”.
This pursuit he believed to be one to the essence of things, which resided in their fundamental shapes and not the subjective impression of their surfaces. He believed such artwork would save itself from the passing fads and earn its place within culture. He stated: “I want to make of Impressionism something solid and lasting like the art in the museums”.
In his approach to the vision of objects, Cézanne was influenced by the empiricist discussions of Hippolyte Taine and by the novelty of stereoscopy. From the latter he appears to have received the idea of representing the depth of objects as if they were seen from a dual perspective, thus sidestepping the traditional conception of a single-point perspective as exemplified by the Renaissance masters.
In his attempt to overcome subjectivism, Paul Cézanne aspired to materialize the essential shapes and colors of objects. The empiricist assumption at the bottom of this attempt is to be found in Taine, but further on it resides in the doctrine of the Irish philosopher George Berkeley, who held that the impression of space was a secondary and illusory datum instinctively deduced from the primary data of vision.
While Cézanne’s artistic attempt was, in one way, overcoming the idea that subjective impressions stand for the authentic reality, he was at the same time (and perhaps unknowingly) challenging the Berkeleyian conclusion that anything like the authentic reality can even be apprehended by human subjects.
Cézanne’s painting subjects
Cézanne’s choice of subject matter was limited. It was still lives, landscapes, and portraits, with the depiction of outdoor scenes sometimes including human subjects. His almost uninterrupted residence in France, his relative exclusion from most artistic circles and happenings, and the inability to regularly find models (especially ones in the nude) circumscribed his possibilities.
His collection of portraits eventually came to depict all of the people close to him, just like the objects he reproduced in his paintings and drawings were chiefly those of his immediate surroundings.
Cézanne often grieved over what he perceived as the incurable imperfection of his paintings. His Impressionist touches combined with stark geometries appeared sometimes to result in incompleteness and irregularity. But more significantly, he struggled to recognize when the authentic object of his vision had materialized on the canvas. Cézanne’s struggle may be said to represent a discussion of Berkley.
The Card Players (1895)
The Card Players, of which there are a number of versions of, is one of the most famous paintings by Paul Cezanne, depicting male peasants smoking pipes and playing cards in their daily lives. It disregarded the scene’s emotional tradition. It was a quiet scene that has been described as “human still life.” The Card Players is a collection of five paintings that differ in size as well as the number of subjects represented.
The Large Bathers (1898)
This is a painting of 14 figures bathing near a river. The abstract nude females provide tension and intensity to the painting. The landscape is mostly bluish with a soft haze in the sky, water, and vegetation mixed, which makes it a unique and wonderful atmosphere. This painting was Cézanne’s largest and last painting in the collection. It is also regarded as a classic of modern art and has been shown on television broadcasts as one of the finest compositions of all time, despite its unfinished state.
Mont Sainte-Victoire seen from Bellevue (1895)
This is a painting of Montagne Sainte-Victoire in Provence, in southern France, where Cézanne was born. The painting shows his goal of bringing order and control to natural situations without sacrificing Impressionism’s optical realism. Light and colors provide the impression of a pattern that isn’t based on nature but exists naturally.
Still life with fruit basket (1888)
This painting is of pots, fruits, a basket, and cloth that are all arranged on a kitchen table. Cézanne said, “Painting from nature is not copying the object, it is realizing one’s sensations.” “Still Life with Fruit Basket” portrays this view, as do a number of the famous paintings by Paul Cezanne, as well as the utilization of color, light, pictorial space, and how we see things.
Apples and Oranges (1900)
This is a painting of a bunch of fruits on a table, such as apples and oranges, which are set in earthenware. The table and the two fruit bowls appear to be painted from distinct perspectives. “Apples and Oranges” brings together modernity and rich beauty to express enjoyment with emotional force and incredible creativity.
The Bather (1885)
This is a painting of an adolescent boy treading slowly in a shallow stream with his hands on his hips. The landscape is as barren as a desert, but there are green, violet, and rose colors. “The Bather” isn’t metaphorical, and it doesn’t tell a story or communicate a message. It is simply a very modern painting and one of the famous paintings by Paul Cezanne for exactly this reason.
Bathers (1905)
This is a painting of 14 figures of men and women bathing near a river. “Bathers” is also known as “Les Grandes Baigneuses.” It evokes images of bathing nymphs and goddesses, particularly mythological scenes from Venetian Renaissance art. Cézanne’s painting, on the other hand, lacks a clear narrative or literary source.
A Modern Olympia (1874)
A Modern Olympia is a painting of a naked servant removing a sheet from a bed, exposing Olympia, who is also naked. It is characterized by vibrant, luminous colors and a direct movement toward Impressionism. This painting was considered very shocking at the time, causing quite a stir when it was first displayed because “Olympia” was a term used to describe prostitutes in Paris. This is also likely a nod to his contemporary Edouard Manet who also depicted his own version of Olympia one year earlier.
Avenue at Chantilly (1888)
This is a painting of a park surrounding the chateau where Cézanne was staying in Chantilly. Warm ochres and reds contrast with cooler blues, greens, and greys, and tonal variations imply the effects of light on vegetation. The darker blue and green colors define the structure of the trees and fences.
Woman with a Coffee Pot (1895)
This is a painting of a woman with a coffee pot, most likely a servant or café employee known to the Cézanne family. The painting includes elements of portraits and still life, as well as Impressionism and Cubism. “Woman with a Coffeepot” is a study of geometric shapes rather than characters.
Women Bathing (1900)
This is a painting based on Cézanne’s characters in pictures. They are completely unaware of their surroundings and the other characters. “Women Bathing” is also referred to as “Bathers.” The painting does not represent a specific situation or moment, as an Impressionist painting would; instead, it changes a theme that had a timeless character for Cézanne.
Boy in a Red Vest (1889)
This is a painting of an Italian boy who is in a sad seated position, his elbow on a table and his head cradled in his hand. “Boy in a Red Vest” is also known as “The Boy in the Red Waistcoat.” There are four oil paintings of this boy in the red vest, who is in various positions.
What famous paintings by Paul Cezanne do you think we should add to this list? Comment below.