The basket of apples

Irritable, defiant and, from , increasingly isolated (in that year his father had died and he had broken off relations with Zola, whose L'Oeuvre, which had used him partly as a model, had wounded him), Cezanne was now known to only a few intimates.

But although a mysterious figure, he had a certain fame. The Nabis, led by Pierre Bonnard (), Paul Serusier (), and Maurice Denis (), were from then on profoundly influenced by him.

By Cezanne had become so reclusive that painters in Paris thought he was dead. In , he had inherited the family estate together with some , francs ($,), from his father, which made him a wealthy man.

Sadly, he also contracted diabetes which caused great difficulties in his relationship with Hortense (whom he had married in ) and his family.

Les grandes baigneuses cézanne biography pdf Harris: [] And all painted where huge areas of the canvas are unfinished. Chateau Noir Versions in several different museums. We see this earlier in the 's in the triangle of fleshy nudes in his Temptation of Saint Anthony. The frieze-like arrangement of the figures, the rhythmic succession of triangular shapes into which they are ordered, and the use of the trees and of bands of grass and water to articulate the space and control the composition, are clearly reminiscent of Poussin's method of composing his landscapes.

Artistically speaking, it wasn't until the mids that his works began to attract the serious acclaim they deserved. Ambroise Vollard organised an exhibition of his works in It had been 20 years since his works had been seen in the capital. The paintings shown aroused a great deal of attention and resulted in a significant rise in the value of his work.

In Vollard bought every painting in his studio, and in he showed three works at the World Fair: the Berlin Museum bought one.

See also the art collector Duncan Phillips (), who was a passionate collector of both Bonnard and Cezanne.

Final Masterpieces

Between about and Cezanne produced a group of major works of Post-Impressionist painting that, in contrast to the brilliant and ephemeral world of the Impressionists, aimed to be 'something solid, like the art of the museums'.

In the breadth of Woman with a Coffee Pot (, Musee d'Orsay), in the dynamic and masterly Mardi Gras (, Pushkin Museum), or in the important series of The Card Players, probably inspired by the work of Le Nain Brothers in Aix Museum (, versions held in various museums), Cezanne showed the full range of his genius.

Analysis often charged with emotion characterizes The Boy with the Red Vest (, Foundation and other museums), Man Smoking a Pipe (, Hermitage Museum), Portrait of Ambroise Vollard (, Petit Palais, Paris) and - one of his most famous landscape paintings - Le Lac d' Annecy (, Courtauld Institute Galleries, London).

Two other gems from Cezanne's final period are Lady in Blue (, Hermitage) and The Young Italian Woman Leaning on her Elbow (), a classical portrait which was bought by Matisse, and is now in the Getty museum.

Admired by young painters (he was visited by Bemard Camoin while, at the Salon des Independants of , Maurice Denis exhibited his Homage a Cezanne), and finally recognized at the Salon d'Automne of , Cezanne continued to work at the themes that obsessed him.

He produced endless versions of the figurative Les Baigneurs (, Barnes Foundation, Merion; National Gallery, London) - culminating in his masterpiece, the Large Bathers (Grandes Baigneuses) (, London/Philadelphia) - as well as landscapes of Mont Sainte-Victoire (, versions in several museums), a well-known landmark near Aix.

With allusive, nervous brushwork, in the short time that remained to him he created the dreamlike vibration of Le Chateau Noir (, versions in Pushkin Museum; Museum of Art, Philadelphia; Buhrle Collection, Zurich).

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 , he died.

Legacy, Reputation As an Artist

Cezanne's influence on the history of art was huge. A master of most painting genres, his use of colour had something in common with post-impressionists like Paul Gauguin () and Van Gogh ().

But it was his constant search for an underlying structure to composition that paved the way for the revolution in abstract art in the 20th century.

He constantly questioned what he saw and how he represented it on canvas, an approach continued after his death by still life artists like Giorgio Morandi (), Georges Braque () and Juan Gris (). A retrospective of 57 paintings took place in at the Salon d'Automne, which exerted a huge influence on Picasso and Braque who were in the process of formulating their prototype Cubism, as well as the Worpswede painter Paula Modersohn-Becker () and many others.

A key figure in French painting, Cezanne's vision was exploited by a wide variety of modern artists, from Fauvists to Cubists.

It was promoted in England by Post-Impressionist exhibitions organized by Roger Fry in and Cezanne's conception appeared from then on, and for a considerable time to come, to be the starting point for all pictorial analysis.

Collections

Cezanne's work includes about paintings and watercolours, and is represented in most of the best art museums throughout the world, notably the Musee d'Orsay, Barnes Foundation (Merion, Pennsylvania), the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art (New York), and the Courtauld Institute and the National Galllery (London).

Also, following the nationalization of collections assembled by Sergei Shchukin () and
Ivan Morozov (), works by Cezanne can be found in the Hermitage in St Petersburg.

Cezanne's Greatest Paintings

Here is a short selection of what we believe are Paul Cezanne's finest pictures.

Figurative
Portrait of Fortune Marion () Kunstmuseum, Basel.
Portrait of Achille Emperaire () Musee d'Orsay.
Madame Cezanne in a Red Armchair () Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Woman with a Coffee Pot () Musee d'Orsay.
Boy in a Red Waistcoat () Collection, Zurich.
Portrait of The Artist's Son () National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.
Madame Cezanne in the Greenhouse () Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.
Man Smoking a Pipe () The Hermitage, St.

Petersburg.
The Card Players () Versions in several different museums.
Old Woman with a Rosary () National Gallery, London.
Portrait of Ambroise Vollard () Petit-Palais de la Ville de Paris.
Lady in Blue () Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.
Young Italian Girl Leaning on her Elbow () Private Collection.
The Large Bathers (&#;) Barnes/Philadelphia Museum/NG London.

Landscapes
Melting Snow at L'Estaque () Collection, Zurich.
The Bridge at Maincy () Musee d'Orsay, Paris.
Mont Sainte-Victoire () Versions in several different museums.
The Banks of the Marne () Pushkin Museum of Fine Art, Moscow.
Lac d'Annecy () Courtauld Institute Galleries, London.
Blue Landscape () Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.
Chateau Noir () Versions in several different museums.

Still Lifes
Still Life with Vase of Fruit () Metropolitan Museum, NY.
Pears on a Chair () Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia.
Flowers and Fruit () Musee de l'Orangerie, Paris.
The Basket of Apples () Art Institute of Chicago.
Fruit and Jug on a Table () Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Still Life, Drapery, Pitcher, Fruit Bowl () Whitney Museum, American Art.
Still Life with Cherub () Courtauld Institute Galleries, London.
Ginger Jar and Fruit () Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia.
Apples and Oranges () Musee d'Orsay.

Self-Portraiture
Portrait of the Artist with a Rose Background () Private Collection.
Self-Portrait with a Bowler Hat () Private Collection.
Self-Portrait with Beret () Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Self-Portrait () Musee d'Orsay.
Self-Portrait () Kunstmuseum, Bern.

Watercolours
The Road () Art Institute of Chicago.
Annecy Lake () City Art Gallery, St Louis, Missouri.
Three Skulls () Art Institute of Chicago.
Pont des Trois-Sautets () Cincinnati Museum.