Paul Cezanne
Biography and Paintings of Post-Impressionist Precursor of Cubism
Visual Arts Guide

Paul Cezanne (1839-1906)

One of the key figures in Post-Impressionism, the French artist Paul Cezanne is often called the 'father of modern of art'. His innovation in the fields of composition, perspective and colour led to the transition from 19th century to 20th century conceptual art. Picasso said he was 'my one and only master...Cezanne was like the father of us all'. Influenced by the Impressionist Camille Pissarro, Cezanne was a master of still life, portraiture, genre-painting and landscape. His plein-air studies of Mont Sainte-Victoire (and his picture Les Grandes Baigneuses, 1898-1905) had a huge influence on the prototype Cubism of Picasso and Braque.

Paul Cezanne was born in Aix-en-Provence in 1839, his father was a wealthy banker and merchant. He developed an interest in art early on in life, but his father was determined that he should pursue a more stable career. In 1859 he went to study law at the University of Aix, but only lasted a year before confessing to his father that he wanted to move to Paris and work as an artist. He was strongly encouraged in this decision by his childhood friend, Emile Zola who was already living in the capital at the time. Cezanne's father eventually agreed to finance this change of career. However, Cezanne's first stay in Paris only lasted 6 months - deeply dissatisfied with his paintings, he destroyed most of his canvasses and returned home full of self doubt and started working in his father's business.

A year later, he decided to try fine art painting again. His early works are dark and moody and remained so for a while after he failed the entrance exams for the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. The Salon also rejected his paintings. It was around this time that Camille Pissarro introduced him to the Impressionist painters Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas.

In 1870, at the age of 30 his style changed. He met Hortense Fiquet, who became his mistress and future wife. The black morbidness that had characterized his works to date disappeared and as his palette became lighter he turned his attention to landscapes. This period is known as his 'constructive' period and is characterized by hatched brushstrokes.

After the birth of his son, he moved to Pontoise, just outside of Paris, where Pissarro lived. The 2 men spent time painting together. Pissarro introduced him to Impressionism, and his work was exhibited alongside the other impressionists in the now famous 1874 exhibition (held in the Paris studio of the photographer Nadar).

Although Pissarro continued to paint faithfully from nature, Cezanne began to react against such a lack of structure. He said he wanted to create something 'solid and durable, like the art of the museums'. He turned his attention to still life, painting over 200. His most famous still-life painting is 'Apples and Oranges', as he demonstrated his analysis of nature stating that the most common underlying geometric shape of nature is the 'cylinder, sphere and the cone'.

In later years Cezanne was to become reclusive, to such an extent that painters in Paris thought he was dead. It wasn't until his late 50's that his works began to attract the acclaim they deserved. The famous art dealer Ambroise Vollard organised an exhibition of his works in 1895. It had been 20 years since his works had been seen in the capital. 2 years later Vollard bought every painting in Cezanne's studio, and admirers started travelling to visit him.

Important popular works in his artistic career include, Still Life with a Curtain (1895), A Lunch on Grass (c.1873-75) (Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris), Boy in a Red Waistcoat (c.1888) (Bührle collection, Zurich) and The Smoker (c.1895) (The Hermitage, St. Petersburg).

Self-Portrait (c.1875)

For a list of the highest prices paid
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Although Cezanne's health deteriorated in later life, he still made the short journey to his studio to paint everyday. He usually travelled by carriage, and one day, angered by the increase in the fare, he decided to walk. It started to rain, he caught a chill, which turned to pneumonia. A week later, in October 1906, he died. Cezanne's influence on the history of art was huge. A master of all painting genres, his use of colour had something in common with other post-impressionists Paul Gaugin and Vincent Van Gogh. But it was his constant search for an underlying structure to composition that paved the way for Cubism and Abstraction in the 20th century. A retrospective of his works took place in 1907 at the Salon d'Automne. He constantly questioned what he saw and how he represented it on canvas, which artists like Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and Juan Gris developed after him.

• For more biographies of great painters, see Old Masters and Famous Artists.
• For information about famous sculptors and painters in Ireland, see: Irish Visual Art

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