Paul Cézanne can be said to form the bridge between late 19th century Impressionism and the early 20th century's new line of artistic inquiry, Cubism. The mastery of design, tone, composition and color that spans his life's work is highly characteristic and now recognizable around the world. Both Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso were highly influenced by Cézanne.
Cézanne was born at Aix-en-Provence in the south of France on January 19, 1839. He went to school in Aix, and met novelist Emilie Zola . He also studied law there from 1859 to 1861, but at the same time he continued his drawing classes. Against his father's wishes, he made up his mind that he wanted to paint and in 1861 joined Zola in Paris. His father's reluctant consent at that time brought him financial support and, later, a large inheritance In Paris he met Camille Pissaro and came to know others of the impressionist group, with whom he would exhibit in 1874 and 1877. Cézanne, however, remained an outsider to their circle; from 1864 to 1869 he submitted his work to the official SALON and saw it consistently being rejected. His paintings of 1865-70 form what is usually called his early ``romantic'' period. Extremely personal in character, it deals with bizarre subjects of violence and fantasy in harsh, somber colors and extremely heavy paintwork. In the early 1870s, he painted Pissaro who he painted outside Paris at Auvers, he explored the principles of color and lighting of Impressionism and loosened up his brushwork; yet he retained his own sense of mass and the interaction of planes, as in House of the Hanged Man (1873; Musee d'Orsay, Paris).In the late 1870s Cézanne entered the phase known as ``constructive,'' by the grouping of parallel, hatched brushstrokes in formations that build up a sense of mass in themselves. He continued in this style until the early 1890s, when, in his paintings titled Card Players (1890-92), the upward curvature of the players' backs creates a sense of architectural solidity and thrust, and the intervals between figures and objects have the appearance of live cells of space and atmosphere.
Finally, living as a solitary in Aix, Cézanne moved into his late phase. Now he worked on a few basic subjects: still lifes, studies of bathers, and successive views of the Mont Sainte-Victoire, a nearby landmark, painted from his studio looking across the intervening valley. The landscapes of the final years, much affected by Cézanne's practice in watercolor, have a more transparent and unfinished look, while the last figure paintings are at once more somber and spiritual in mood. By the time of his death on Oct. 22, 1906, Cézanne's art had begun to be shown and seen across Europe, and it became a fundamental influence on the Fauves, the cubists, and basically all advanced art of the early 20th century.
Cézanne was born at Aix-en-Provence in the south of France on January 19, 1839. He went to school in Aix, and met novelist Emilie Zola . He also studied law there from 1859 to 1861, but at the same time he continued his drawing classes. Against his father's wishes, he made up his mind that he wanted to paint and in 1861 joined Zola in Paris. His father's reluctant consent at that time brought him financial support and, later, a large inheritance In Paris he met Camille Pissaro and came to know others of the impressionist group, with whom he would exhibit in 1874 and 1877. Cézanne, however, remained an outsider to their circle; from 1864 to 1869 he submitted his work to the official SALON and saw it consistently being rejected. His paintings of 1865-70 form what is usually called his early ``romantic'' period. Extremely personal in character, it deals with bizarre subjects of violence and fantasy in harsh, somber colors and extremely heavy paintwork. In the early 1870s, he painted Pissaro who he painted outside Paris at Auvers, he explored the principles of color and lighting of Impressionism and loosened up his brushwork; yet he retained his own sense of mass and the interaction of planes, as in House of the Hanged Man (1873; Musee d'Orsay, Paris).In the late 1870s Cézanne entered the phase known as ``constructive,'' by the grouping of parallel, hatched brushstrokes in formations that build up a sense of mass in themselves. He continued in this style until the early 1890s, when, in his paintings titled Card Players (1890-92), the upward curvature of the players' backs creates a sense of architectural solidity and thrust, and the intervals between figures and objects have the appearance of live cells of space and atmosphere.
Finally, living as a solitary in Aix, Cézanne moved into his late phase. Now he worked on a few basic subjects: still lifes, studies of bathers, and successive views of the Mont Sainte-Victoire, a nearby landmark, painted from his studio looking across the intervening valley. The landscapes of the final years, much affected by Cézanne's practice in watercolor, have a more transparent and unfinished look, while the last figure paintings are at once more somber and spiritual in mood. By the time of his death on Oct. 22, 1906, Cézanne's art had begun to be shown and seen across Europe, and it became a fundamental influence on the Fauves, the cubists, and basically all advanced art of the early 20th century.