The Evolution of a Master: Cézanne at Tate Modern
Immerse yourself in the life of one of the 19th Century's most influential artists in Tate Modern's new exhibition...
October 26, 2022
The Tate Modern’s Cézanne exhibition scopes the artist's artistic development taking us through pivotal moments in the evolution of his influential style. The exhibition is arranged chronologically in thematic rooms with a focus on the artist’s still-lifes and landscapes, as well as, of course, his infamous bathers. We follow Cézanne from his roots in Provence to Paris and back and forth throughout his life, culminating with landscapes of Sainte-Victoire at the height of his artistic development.
The first room introduces the artist with two paintings, a self-portrait, of which he made many (though this is the only one to feature in the exhibition) and a still-life, the genre that brought him so much acclaim. Exiting this room, we move to paintings of the artist's formative years; like much of Cézanne’s work, while there are stand out pieces others are lost in the noise. Some of his early landscapes, for instance View of Auvers (1873-5), could be seen as naive and lacking direction. His style at this time is violent, which the display guide claims reflects the nature of contemporary French society; the dark side of the Belle Époque was a societal obsession with stories of murder and gore. Cézanne’s nude figures lunge and grope each other in what is hard to decipher as being a brawl or an orgy. Globs of fleshy brushstrokes formulate incongruous limbs; huge buttocks and pin-sized heads roll around on these small, busy canvases.
France during Cézanne’s lifetime was still recovering from the revolution of 1789 and political debate was occupied by groups with competing visions for the future of the country. The early work in these rooms also touch on recent research that has revealed Cézanne to be more engaged in political and social commentary than previously thought. The painting Scipio (1866–1868) is one of the stand out pieces of the exhibition, a large canvas depicting a seated black model with his bare back to the viewer. The curators suggest the composition may have been inspired by the image of an enslaved man with horrific scars that became an emblem for abolitionism.
Cézanne never really took to the city and always wanted to be seen as an outsider among his childhood friend Emile Zola’s new band of cosmopolitan Parisian friends. His style set him apart from other artists and he was frequently rejected from the Academie des Beaux Arts. However, it was at the independent art school, Academie Suisse, that he developed a lasting friendship with the artist Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), nine years his senior. While Pissarro would go on to develop Pointillism, dabbing the canvas with precise dots of paint, Cézanne would develop his ‘parallel line’ style. This method of painting became known as ‘sensations style’, a more emotion-based exploration of seeing. In his own words: ‘I paint as I see, as I feel’. This style led to little commercial success in his early years but would be fundamental to the future trajectory of Western painting.
During the Franco-Prussian war Cézanne hid, avoiding conscription in the sleepy coastal village of L’Estaque near Marseille. His work in this period is dominated by intimate family portraits and coastal landscapes. At L’Estaque he mastered his technique; modern materials and commercially produced lightweight tools allowed for Cézanne to venture out into the country and paint ‘en plein air’. It was here Cézanne became Cézanne, departing from the style that Pissarro would develop into Pointillism, and instead breaking the landscape down into larger planes of colour. A style admired by Matisse and Picasso, in which he would later abandon traditional linear perspective and warp his subject matter to his liking, demonstrated in the still-lifes displayed in the next room and laying the historical groundwork for Cubism.
Over the course of the next rooms we see the wild energy of Cézanne’s earlier work subdued into a more sombre and melancholic style and palette. Toward the end of his life Cézanne began focussing his painting on Mont Sainte-Victoire. The stability and strength of the mountain is translated into his style, and the artist seems to be obsessed with capturing the permanence of the mountain against a fleeting and impressionistic landscape. As his health declined Cézanne painted some of his best, yet most macabre work, with skulls piled among the oranges and apples of his still-lifes.
It is easy to forget the impact Cézanne’s work has had on the history of modern painting; a nice curatorial touch at the exhibition is the inclusion of the paintings’ provenance, detailing which other renowned painters owned the paintings displayed, thereby directly tracing the influence Cézanne had on the likes of artists such as Monet, Manet, Gauguin and Picasso. While at times his work lacks technical ability, his experimental approach often breaks through to create a masterpiece. He was a truly sensational painter and arguably the father of modern art.
The EY Exhibition: Cézanne is showing at Tate Modern until 12th March 2022
Don’t forget to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!
The Tate Modern’s Cézanne exhibition scopes the artist's artistic development taking us through pivotal moments in the evolution of his influential style. The exhibition is arranged chronologically in thematic rooms with a focus on the artist’s still-lifes and landscapes, as well as, of course, his infamous bathers. We follow Cézanne from his roots in Provence to Paris and back and forth throughout his life, culminating with landscapes of Sainte-Victoire at the height of his artistic development.
The first room introduces the artist with two paintings, a self-portrait, of which he made many (though this is the only one to feature in the exhibition) and a still-life, the genre that brought him so much acclaim. Exiting this room, we move to paintings of the artist's formative years; like much of Cézanne’s work, while there are stand out pieces others are lost in the noise. Some of his early landscapes, for instance View of Auvers (1873-5), could be seen as naive and lacking direction. His style at this time is violent, which the display guide claims reflects the nature of contemporary French society; the dark side of the Belle Époque was a societal obsession with stories of murder and gore. Cézanne’s nude figures lunge and grope each other in what is hard to decipher as being a brawl or an orgy. Globs of fleshy brushstrokes formulate incongruous limbs; huge buttocks and pin-sized heads roll around on these small, busy canvases.
France during Cézanne’s lifetime was still recovering from the revolution of 1789 and political debate was occupied by groups with competing visions for the future of the country. The early work in these rooms also touch on recent research that has revealed Cézanne to be more engaged in political and social commentary than previously thought. The painting Scipio (1866–1868) is one of the stand out pieces of the exhibition, a large canvas depicting a seated black model with his bare back to the viewer. The curators suggest the composition may have been inspired by the image of an enslaved man with horrific scars that became an emblem for abolitionism.
Cézanne never really took to the city and always wanted to be seen as an outsider among his childhood friend Emile Zola’s new band of cosmopolitan Parisian friends. His style set him apart from other artists and he was frequently rejected from the Academie des Beaux Arts. However, it was at the independent art school, Academie Suisse, that he developed a lasting friendship with the artist Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), nine years his senior. While Pissarro would go on to develop Pointillism, dabbing the canvas with precise dots of paint, Cézanne would develop his ‘parallel line’ style. This method of painting became known as ‘sensations style’, a more emotion-based exploration of seeing. In his own words: ‘I paint as I see, as I feel’. This style led to little commercial success in his early years but would be fundamental to the future trajectory of Western painting.
During the Franco-Prussian war Cézanne hid, avoiding conscription in the sleepy coastal village of L’Estaque near Marseille. His work in this period is dominated by intimate family portraits and coastal landscapes. At L’Estaque he mastered his technique; modern materials and commercially produced lightweight tools allowed for Cézanne to venture out into the country and paint ‘en plein air’. It was here Cézanne became Cézanne, departing from the style that Pissarro would develop into Pointillism, and instead breaking the landscape down into larger planes of colour. A style admired by Matisse and Picasso, in which he would later abandon traditional linear perspective and warp his subject matter to his liking, demonstrated in the still-lifes displayed in the next room and laying the historical groundwork for Cubism.
Over the course of the next rooms we see the wild energy of Cézanne’s earlier work subdued into a more sombre and melancholic style and palette. Toward the end of his life Cézanne began focussing his painting on Mont Sainte-Victoire. The stability and strength of the mountain is translated into his style, and the artist seems to be obsessed with capturing the permanence of the mountain against a fleeting and impressionistic landscape. As his health declined Cézanne painted some of his best, yet most macabre work, with skulls piled among the oranges and apples of his still-lifes.
It is easy to forget the impact Cézanne’s work has had on the history of modern painting; a nice curatorial touch at the exhibition is the inclusion of the paintings’ provenance, detailing which other renowned painters owned the paintings displayed, thereby directly tracing the influence Cézanne had on the likes of artists such as Monet, Manet, Gauguin and Picasso. While at times his work lacks technical ability, his experimental approach often breaks through to create a masterpiece. He was a truly sensational painter and arguably the father of modern art.
The EY Exhibition: Cézanne is showing at Tate Modern until 12th March 2022
Don’t forget to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!
The Tate Modern’s Cézanne exhibition scopes the artist's artistic development taking us through pivotal moments in the evolution of his influential style. The exhibition is arranged chronologically in thematic rooms with a focus on the artist’s still-lifes and landscapes, as well as, of course, his infamous bathers. We follow Cézanne from his roots in Provence to Paris and back and forth throughout his life, culminating with landscapes of Sainte-Victoire at the height of his artistic development.
The first room introduces the artist with two paintings, a self-portrait, of which he made many (though this is the only one to feature in the exhibition) and a still-life, the genre that brought him so much acclaim. Exiting this room, we move to paintings of the artist's formative years; like much of Cézanne’s work, while there are stand out pieces others are lost in the noise. Some of his early landscapes, for instance View of Auvers (1873-5), could be seen as naive and lacking direction. His style at this time is violent, which the display guide claims reflects the nature of contemporary French society; the dark side of the Belle Époque was a societal obsession with stories of murder and gore. Cézanne’s nude figures lunge and grope each other in what is hard to decipher as being a brawl or an orgy. Globs of fleshy brushstrokes formulate incongruous limbs; huge buttocks and pin-sized heads roll around on these small, busy canvases.
France during Cézanne’s lifetime was still recovering from the revolution of 1789 and political debate was occupied by groups with competing visions for the future of the country. The early work in these rooms also touch on recent research that has revealed Cézanne to be more engaged in political and social commentary than previously thought. The painting Scipio (1866–1868) is one of the stand out pieces of the exhibition, a large canvas depicting a seated black model with his bare back to the viewer. The curators suggest the composition may have been inspired by the image of an enslaved man with horrific scars that became an emblem for abolitionism.
Cézanne never really took to the city and always wanted to be seen as an outsider among his childhood friend Emile Zola’s new band of cosmopolitan Parisian friends. His style set him apart from other artists and he was frequently rejected from the Academie des Beaux Arts. However, it was at the independent art school, Academie Suisse, that he developed a lasting friendship with the artist Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), nine years his senior. While Pissarro would go on to develop Pointillism, dabbing the canvas with precise dots of paint, Cézanne would develop his ‘parallel line’ style. This method of painting became known as ‘sensations style’, a more emotion-based exploration of seeing. In his own words: ‘I paint as I see, as I feel’. This style led to little commercial success in his early years but would be fundamental to the future trajectory of Western painting.
During the Franco-Prussian war Cézanne hid, avoiding conscription in the sleepy coastal village of L’Estaque near Marseille. His work in this period is dominated by intimate family portraits and coastal landscapes. At L’Estaque he mastered his technique; modern materials and commercially produced lightweight tools allowed for Cézanne to venture out into the country and paint ‘en plein air’. It was here Cézanne became Cézanne, departing from the style that Pissarro would develop into Pointillism, and instead breaking the landscape down into larger planes of colour. A style admired by Matisse and Picasso, in which he would later abandon traditional linear perspective and warp his subject matter to his liking, demonstrated in the still-lifes displayed in the next room and laying the historical groundwork for Cubism.
Over the course of the next rooms we see the wild energy of Cézanne’s earlier work subdued into a more sombre and melancholic style and palette. Toward the end of his life Cézanne began focussing his painting on Mont Sainte-Victoire. The stability and strength of the mountain is translated into his style, and the artist seems to be obsessed with capturing the permanence of the mountain against a fleeting and impressionistic landscape. As his health declined Cézanne painted some of his best, yet most macabre work, with skulls piled among the oranges and apples of his still-lifes.
It is easy to forget the impact Cézanne’s work has had on the history of modern painting; a nice curatorial touch at the exhibition is the inclusion of the paintings’ provenance, detailing which other renowned painters owned the paintings displayed, thereby directly tracing the influence Cézanne had on the likes of artists such as Monet, Manet, Gauguin and Picasso. While at times his work lacks technical ability, his experimental approach often breaks through to create a masterpiece. He was a truly sensational painter and arguably the father of modern art.
The EY Exhibition: Cézanne is showing at Tate Modern until 12th March 2022
Don’t forget to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!
The Tate Modern’s Cézanne exhibition scopes the artist's artistic development taking us through pivotal moments in the evolution of his influential style. The exhibition is arranged chronologically in thematic rooms with a focus on the artist’s still-lifes and landscapes, as well as, of course, his infamous bathers. We follow Cézanne from his roots in Provence to Paris and back and forth throughout his life, culminating with landscapes of Sainte-Victoire at the height of his artistic development.
The first room introduces the artist with two paintings, a self-portrait, of which he made many (though this is the only one to feature in the exhibition) and a still-life, the genre that brought him so much acclaim. Exiting this room, we move to paintings of the artist's formative years; like much of Cézanne’s work, while there are stand out pieces others are lost in the noise. Some of his early landscapes, for instance View of Auvers (1873-5), could be seen as naive and lacking direction. His style at this time is violent, which the display guide claims reflects the nature of contemporary French society; the dark side of the Belle Époque was a societal obsession with stories of murder and gore. Cézanne’s nude figures lunge and grope each other in what is hard to decipher as being a brawl or an orgy. Globs of fleshy brushstrokes formulate incongruous limbs; huge buttocks and pin-sized heads roll around on these small, busy canvases.
France during Cézanne’s lifetime was still recovering from the revolution of 1789 and political debate was occupied by groups with competing visions for the future of the country. The early work in these rooms also touch on recent research that has revealed Cézanne to be more engaged in political and social commentary than previously thought. The painting Scipio (1866–1868) is one of the stand out pieces of the exhibition, a large canvas depicting a seated black model with his bare back to the viewer. The curators suggest the composition may have been inspired by the image of an enslaved man with horrific scars that became an emblem for abolitionism.
Cézanne never really took to the city and always wanted to be seen as an outsider among his childhood friend Emile Zola’s new band of cosmopolitan Parisian friends. His style set him apart from other artists and he was frequently rejected from the Academie des Beaux Arts. However, it was at the independent art school, Academie Suisse, that he developed a lasting friendship with the artist Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), nine years his senior. While Pissarro would go on to develop Pointillism, dabbing the canvas with precise dots of paint, Cézanne would develop his ‘parallel line’ style. This method of painting became known as ‘sensations style’, a more emotion-based exploration of seeing. In his own words: ‘I paint as I see, as I feel’. This style led to little commercial success in his early years but would be fundamental to the future trajectory of Western painting.
During the Franco-Prussian war Cézanne hid, avoiding conscription in the sleepy coastal village of L’Estaque near Marseille. His work in this period is dominated by intimate family portraits and coastal landscapes. At L’Estaque he mastered his technique; modern materials and commercially produced lightweight tools allowed for Cézanne to venture out into the country and paint ‘en plein air’. It was here Cézanne became Cézanne, departing from the style that Pissarro would develop into Pointillism, and instead breaking the landscape down into larger planes of colour. A style admired by Matisse and Picasso, in which he would later abandon traditional linear perspective and warp his subject matter to his liking, demonstrated in the still-lifes displayed in the next room and laying the historical groundwork for Cubism.
Over the course of the next rooms we see the wild energy of Cézanne’s earlier work subdued into a more sombre and melancholic style and palette. Toward the end of his life Cézanne began focussing his painting on Mont Sainte-Victoire. The stability and strength of the mountain is translated into his style, and the artist seems to be obsessed with capturing the permanence of the mountain against a fleeting and impressionistic landscape. As his health declined Cézanne painted some of his best, yet most macabre work, with skulls piled among the oranges and apples of his still-lifes.
It is easy to forget the impact Cézanne’s work has had on the history of modern painting; a nice curatorial touch at the exhibition is the inclusion of the paintings’ provenance, detailing which other renowned painters owned the paintings displayed, thereby directly tracing the influence Cézanne had on the likes of artists such as Monet, Manet, Gauguin and Picasso. While at times his work lacks technical ability, his experimental approach often breaks through to create a masterpiece. He was a truly sensational painter and arguably the father of modern art.
The EY Exhibition: Cézanne is showing at Tate Modern until 12th March 2022
Don’t forget to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!
The Tate Modern’s Cézanne exhibition scopes the artist's artistic development taking us through pivotal moments in the evolution of his influential style. The exhibition is arranged chronologically in thematic rooms with a focus on the artist’s still-lifes and landscapes, as well as, of course, his infamous bathers. We follow Cézanne from his roots in Provence to Paris and back and forth throughout his life, culminating with landscapes of Sainte-Victoire at the height of his artistic development.
The first room introduces the artist with two paintings, a self-portrait, of which he made many (though this is the only one to feature in the exhibition) and a still-life, the genre that brought him so much acclaim. Exiting this room, we move to paintings of the artist's formative years; like much of Cézanne’s work, while there are stand out pieces others are lost in the noise. Some of his early landscapes, for instance View of Auvers (1873-5), could be seen as naive and lacking direction. His style at this time is violent, which the display guide claims reflects the nature of contemporary French society; the dark side of the Belle Époque was a societal obsession with stories of murder and gore. Cézanne’s nude figures lunge and grope each other in what is hard to decipher as being a brawl or an orgy. Globs of fleshy brushstrokes formulate incongruous limbs; huge buttocks and pin-sized heads roll around on these small, busy canvases.
France during Cézanne’s lifetime was still recovering from the revolution of 1789 and political debate was occupied by groups with competing visions for the future of the country. The early work in these rooms also touch on recent research that has revealed Cézanne to be more engaged in political and social commentary than previously thought. The painting Scipio (1866–1868) is one of the stand out pieces of the exhibition, a large canvas depicting a seated black model with his bare back to the viewer. The curators suggest the composition may have been inspired by the image of an enslaved man with horrific scars that became an emblem for abolitionism.
Cézanne never really took to the city and always wanted to be seen as an outsider among his childhood friend Emile Zola’s new band of cosmopolitan Parisian friends. His style set him apart from other artists and he was frequently rejected from the Academie des Beaux Arts. However, it was at the independent art school, Academie Suisse, that he developed a lasting friendship with the artist Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), nine years his senior. While Pissarro would go on to develop Pointillism, dabbing the canvas with precise dots of paint, Cézanne would develop his ‘parallel line’ style. This method of painting became known as ‘sensations style’, a more emotion-based exploration of seeing. In his own words: ‘I paint as I see, as I feel’. This style led to little commercial success in his early years but would be fundamental to the future trajectory of Western painting.
During the Franco-Prussian war Cézanne hid, avoiding conscription in the sleepy coastal village of L’Estaque near Marseille. His work in this period is dominated by intimate family portraits and coastal landscapes. At L’Estaque he mastered his technique; modern materials and commercially produced lightweight tools allowed for Cézanne to venture out into the country and paint ‘en plein air’. It was here Cézanne became Cézanne, departing from the style that Pissarro would develop into Pointillism, and instead breaking the landscape down into larger planes of colour. A style admired by Matisse and Picasso, in which he would later abandon traditional linear perspective and warp his subject matter to his liking, demonstrated in the still-lifes displayed in the next room and laying the historical groundwork for Cubism.
Over the course of the next rooms we see the wild energy of Cézanne’s earlier work subdued into a more sombre and melancholic style and palette. Toward the end of his life Cézanne began focussing his painting on Mont Sainte-Victoire. The stability and strength of the mountain is translated into his style, and the artist seems to be obsessed with capturing the permanence of the mountain against a fleeting and impressionistic landscape. As his health declined Cézanne painted some of his best, yet most macabre work, with skulls piled among the oranges and apples of his still-lifes.
It is easy to forget the impact Cézanne’s work has had on the history of modern painting; a nice curatorial touch at the exhibition is the inclusion of the paintings’ provenance, detailing which other renowned painters owned the paintings displayed, thereby directly tracing the influence Cézanne had on the likes of artists such as Monet, Manet, Gauguin and Picasso. While at times his work lacks technical ability, his experimental approach often breaks through to create a masterpiece. He was a truly sensational painter and arguably the father of modern art.
The EY Exhibition: Cézanne is showing at Tate Modern until 12th March 2022
Don’t forget to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!
The Tate Modern’s Cézanne exhibition scopes the artist's artistic development taking us through pivotal moments in the evolution of his influential style. The exhibition is arranged chronologically in thematic rooms with a focus on the artist’s still-lifes and landscapes, as well as, of course, his infamous bathers. We follow Cézanne from his roots in Provence to Paris and back and forth throughout his life, culminating with landscapes of Sainte-Victoire at the height of his artistic development.
The first room introduces the artist with two paintings, a self-portrait, of which he made many (though this is the only one to feature in the exhibition) and a still-life, the genre that brought him so much acclaim. Exiting this room, we move to paintings of the artist's formative years; like much of Cézanne’s work, while there are stand out pieces others are lost in the noise. Some of his early landscapes, for instance View of Auvers (1873-5), could be seen as naive and lacking direction. His style at this time is violent, which the display guide claims reflects the nature of contemporary French society; the dark side of the Belle Époque was a societal obsession with stories of murder and gore. Cézanne’s nude figures lunge and grope each other in what is hard to decipher as being a brawl or an orgy. Globs of fleshy brushstrokes formulate incongruous limbs; huge buttocks and pin-sized heads roll around on these small, busy canvases.
France during Cézanne’s lifetime was still recovering from the revolution of 1789 and political debate was occupied by groups with competing visions for the future of the country. The early work in these rooms also touch on recent research that has revealed Cézanne to be more engaged in political and social commentary than previously thought. The painting Scipio (1866–1868) is one of the stand out pieces of the exhibition, a large canvas depicting a seated black model with his bare back to the viewer. The curators suggest the composition may have been inspired by the image of an enslaved man with horrific scars that became an emblem for abolitionism.
Cézanne never really took to the city and always wanted to be seen as an outsider among his childhood friend Emile Zola’s new band of cosmopolitan Parisian friends. His style set him apart from other artists and he was frequently rejected from the Academie des Beaux Arts. However, it was at the independent art school, Academie Suisse, that he developed a lasting friendship with the artist Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), nine years his senior. While Pissarro would go on to develop Pointillism, dabbing the canvas with precise dots of paint, Cézanne would develop his ‘parallel line’ style. This method of painting became known as ‘sensations style’, a more emotion-based exploration of seeing. In his own words: ‘I paint as I see, as I feel’. This style led to little commercial success in his early years but would be fundamental to the future trajectory of Western painting.
During the Franco-Prussian war Cézanne hid, avoiding conscription in the sleepy coastal village of L’Estaque near Marseille. His work in this period is dominated by intimate family portraits and coastal landscapes. At L’Estaque he mastered his technique; modern materials and commercially produced lightweight tools allowed for Cézanne to venture out into the country and paint ‘en plein air’. It was here Cézanne became Cézanne, departing from the style that Pissarro would develop into Pointillism, and instead breaking the landscape down into larger planes of colour. A style admired by Matisse and Picasso, in which he would later abandon traditional linear perspective and warp his subject matter to his liking, demonstrated in the still-lifes displayed in the next room and laying the historical groundwork for Cubism.
Over the course of the next rooms we see the wild energy of Cézanne’s earlier work subdued into a more sombre and melancholic style and palette. Toward the end of his life Cézanne began focussing his painting on Mont Sainte-Victoire. The stability and strength of the mountain is translated into his style, and the artist seems to be obsessed with capturing the permanence of the mountain against a fleeting and impressionistic landscape. As his health declined Cézanne painted some of his best, yet most macabre work, with skulls piled among the oranges and apples of his still-lifes.
It is easy to forget the impact Cézanne’s work has had on the history of modern painting; a nice curatorial touch at the exhibition is the inclusion of the paintings’ provenance, detailing which other renowned painters owned the paintings displayed, thereby directly tracing the influence Cézanne had on the likes of artists such as Monet, Manet, Gauguin and Picasso. While at times his work lacks technical ability, his experimental approach often breaks through to create a masterpiece. He was a truly sensational painter and arguably the father of modern art.
The EY Exhibition: Cézanne is showing at Tate Modern until 12th March 2022
Don’t forget to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!
The Tate Modern’s Cézanne exhibition scopes the artist's artistic development taking us through pivotal moments in the evolution of his influential style. The exhibition is arranged chronologically in thematic rooms with a focus on the artist’s still-lifes and landscapes, as well as, of course, his infamous bathers. We follow Cézanne from his roots in Provence to Paris and back and forth throughout his life, culminating with landscapes of Sainte-Victoire at the height of his artistic development.
The first room introduces the artist with two paintings, a self-portrait, of which he made many (though this is the only one to feature in the exhibition) and a still-life, the genre that brought him so much acclaim. Exiting this room, we move to paintings of the artist's formative years; like much of Cézanne’s work, while there are stand out pieces others are lost in the noise. Some of his early landscapes, for instance View of Auvers (1873-5), could be seen as naive and lacking direction. His style at this time is violent, which the display guide claims reflects the nature of contemporary French society; the dark side of the Belle Époque was a societal obsession with stories of murder and gore. Cézanne’s nude figures lunge and grope each other in what is hard to decipher as being a brawl or an orgy. Globs of fleshy brushstrokes formulate incongruous limbs; huge buttocks and pin-sized heads roll around on these small, busy canvases.
France during Cézanne’s lifetime was still recovering from the revolution of 1789 and political debate was occupied by groups with competing visions for the future of the country. The early work in these rooms also touch on recent research that has revealed Cézanne to be more engaged in political and social commentary than previously thought. The painting Scipio (1866–1868) is one of the stand out pieces of the exhibition, a large canvas depicting a seated black model with his bare back to the viewer. The curators suggest the composition may have been inspired by the image of an enslaved man with horrific scars that became an emblem for abolitionism.
Cézanne never really took to the city and always wanted to be seen as an outsider among his childhood friend Emile Zola’s new band of cosmopolitan Parisian friends. His style set him apart from other artists and he was frequently rejected from the Academie des Beaux Arts. However, it was at the independent art school, Academie Suisse, that he developed a lasting friendship with the artist Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), nine years his senior. While Pissarro would go on to develop Pointillism, dabbing the canvas with precise dots of paint, Cézanne would develop his ‘parallel line’ style. This method of painting became known as ‘sensations style’, a more emotion-based exploration of seeing. In his own words: ‘I paint as I see, as I feel’. This style led to little commercial success in his early years but would be fundamental to the future trajectory of Western painting.
During the Franco-Prussian war Cézanne hid, avoiding conscription in the sleepy coastal village of L’Estaque near Marseille. His work in this period is dominated by intimate family portraits and coastal landscapes. At L’Estaque he mastered his technique; modern materials and commercially produced lightweight tools allowed for Cézanne to venture out into the country and paint ‘en plein air’. It was here Cézanne became Cézanne, departing from the style that Pissarro would develop into Pointillism, and instead breaking the landscape down into larger planes of colour. A style admired by Matisse and Picasso, in which he would later abandon traditional linear perspective and warp his subject matter to his liking, demonstrated in the still-lifes displayed in the next room and laying the historical groundwork for Cubism.
Over the course of the next rooms we see the wild energy of Cézanne’s earlier work subdued into a more sombre and melancholic style and palette. Toward the end of his life Cézanne began focussing his painting on Mont Sainte-Victoire. The stability and strength of the mountain is translated into his style, and the artist seems to be obsessed with capturing the permanence of the mountain against a fleeting and impressionistic landscape. As his health declined Cézanne painted some of his best, yet most macabre work, with skulls piled among the oranges and apples of his still-lifes.
It is easy to forget the impact Cézanne’s work has had on the history of modern painting; a nice curatorial touch at the exhibition is the inclusion of the paintings’ provenance, detailing which other renowned painters owned the paintings displayed, thereby directly tracing the influence Cézanne had on the likes of artists such as Monet, Manet, Gauguin and Picasso. While at times his work lacks technical ability, his experimental approach often breaks through to create a masterpiece. He was a truly sensational painter and arguably the father of modern art.
The EY Exhibition: Cézanne is showing at Tate Modern until 12th March 2022
Don’t forget to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!
The Tate Modern’s Cézanne exhibition scopes the artist's artistic development taking us through pivotal moments in the evolution of his influential style. The exhibition is arranged chronologically in thematic rooms with a focus on the artist’s still-lifes and landscapes, as well as, of course, his infamous bathers. We follow Cézanne from his roots in Provence to Paris and back and forth throughout his life, culminating with landscapes of Sainte-Victoire at the height of his artistic development.
The first room introduces the artist with two paintings, a self-portrait, of which he made many (though this is the only one to feature in the exhibition) and a still-life, the genre that brought him so much acclaim. Exiting this room, we move to paintings of the artist's formative years; like much of Cézanne’s work, while there are stand out pieces others are lost in the noise. Some of his early landscapes, for instance View of Auvers (1873-5), could be seen as naive and lacking direction. His style at this time is violent, which the display guide claims reflects the nature of contemporary French society; the dark side of the Belle Époque was a societal obsession with stories of murder and gore. Cézanne’s nude figures lunge and grope each other in what is hard to decipher as being a brawl or an orgy. Globs of fleshy brushstrokes formulate incongruous limbs; huge buttocks and pin-sized heads roll around on these small, busy canvases.
France during Cézanne’s lifetime was still recovering from the revolution of 1789 and political debate was occupied by groups with competing visions for the future of the country. The early work in these rooms also touch on recent research that has revealed Cézanne to be more engaged in political and social commentary than previously thought. The painting Scipio (1866–1868) is one of the stand out pieces of the exhibition, a large canvas depicting a seated black model with his bare back to the viewer. The curators suggest the composition may have been inspired by the image of an enslaved man with horrific scars that became an emblem for abolitionism.
Cézanne never really took to the city and always wanted to be seen as an outsider among his childhood friend Emile Zola’s new band of cosmopolitan Parisian friends. His style set him apart from other artists and he was frequently rejected from the Academie des Beaux Arts. However, it was at the independent art school, Academie Suisse, that he developed a lasting friendship with the artist Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), nine years his senior. While Pissarro would go on to develop Pointillism, dabbing the canvas with precise dots of paint, Cézanne would develop his ‘parallel line’ style. This method of painting became known as ‘sensations style’, a more emotion-based exploration of seeing. In his own words: ‘I paint as I see, as I feel’. This style led to little commercial success in his early years but would be fundamental to the future trajectory of Western painting.
During the Franco-Prussian war Cézanne hid, avoiding conscription in the sleepy coastal village of L’Estaque near Marseille. His work in this period is dominated by intimate family portraits and coastal landscapes. At L’Estaque he mastered his technique; modern materials and commercially produced lightweight tools allowed for Cézanne to venture out into the country and paint ‘en plein air’. It was here Cézanne became Cézanne, departing from the style that Pissarro would develop into Pointillism, and instead breaking the landscape down into larger planes of colour. A style admired by Matisse and Picasso, in which he would later abandon traditional linear perspective and warp his subject matter to his liking, demonstrated in the still-lifes displayed in the next room and laying the historical groundwork for Cubism.
Over the course of the next rooms we see the wild energy of Cézanne’s earlier work subdued into a more sombre and melancholic style and palette. Toward the end of his life Cézanne began focussing his painting on Mont Sainte-Victoire. The stability and strength of the mountain is translated into his style, and the artist seems to be obsessed with capturing the permanence of the mountain against a fleeting and impressionistic landscape. As his health declined Cézanne painted some of his best, yet most macabre work, with skulls piled among the oranges and apples of his still-lifes.
It is easy to forget the impact Cézanne’s work has had on the history of modern painting; a nice curatorial touch at the exhibition is the inclusion of the paintings’ provenance, detailing which other renowned painters owned the paintings displayed, thereby directly tracing the influence Cézanne had on the likes of artists such as Monet, Manet, Gauguin and Picasso. While at times his work lacks technical ability, his experimental approach often breaks through to create a masterpiece. He was a truly sensational painter and arguably the father of modern art.
The EY Exhibition: Cézanne is showing at Tate Modern until 12th March 2022
Don’t forget to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!
The Tate Modern’s Cézanne exhibition scopes the artist's artistic development taking us through pivotal moments in the evolution of his influential style. The exhibition is arranged chronologically in thematic rooms with a focus on the artist’s still-lifes and landscapes, as well as, of course, his infamous bathers. We follow Cézanne from his roots in Provence to Paris and back and forth throughout his life, culminating with landscapes of Sainte-Victoire at the height of his artistic development.
The first room introduces the artist with two paintings, a self-portrait, of which he made many (though this is the only one to feature in the exhibition) and a still-life, the genre that brought him so much acclaim. Exiting this room, we move to paintings of the artist's formative years; like much of Cézanne’s work, while there are stand out pieces others are lost in the noise. Some of his early landscapes, for instance View of Auvers (1873-5), could be seen as naive and lacking direction. His style at this time is violent, which the display guide claims reflects the nature of contemporary French society; the dark side of the Belle Époque was a societal obsession with stories of murder and gore. Cézanne’s nude figures lunge and grope each other in what is hard to decipher as being a brawl or an orgy. Globs of fleshy brushstrokes formulate incongruous limbs; huge buttocks and pin-sized heads roll around on these small, busy canvases.
France during Cézanne’s lifetime was still recovering from the revolution of 1789 and political debate was occupied by groups with competing visions for the future of the country. The early work in these rooms also touch on recent research that has revealed Cézanne to be more engaged in political and social commentary than previously thought. The painting Scipio (1866–1868) is one of the stand out pieces of the exhibition, a large canvas depicting a seated black model with his bare back to the viewer. The curators suggest the composition may have been inspired by the image of an enslaved man with horrific scars that became an emblem for abolitionism.
Cézanne never really took to the city and always wanted to be seen as an outsider among his childhood friend Emile Zola’s new band of cosmopolitan Parisian friends. His style set him apart from other artists and he was frequently rejected from the Academie des Beaux Arts. However, it was at the independent art school, Academie Suisse, that he developed a lasting friendship with the artist Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), nine years his senior. While Pissarro would go on to develop Pointillism, dabbing the canvas with precise dots of paint, Cézanne would develop his ‘parallel line’ style. This method of painting became known as ‘sensations style’, a more emotion-based exploration of seeing. In his own words: ‘I paint as I see, as I feel’. This style led to little commercial success in his early years but would be fundamental to the future trajectory of Western painting.
During the Franco-Prussian war Cézanne hid, avoiding conscription in the sleepy coastal village of L’Estaque near Marseille. His work in this period is dominated by intimate family portraits and coastal landscapes. At L’Estaque he mastered his technique; modern materials and commercially produced lightweight tools allowed for Cézanne to venture out into the country and paint ‘en plein air’. It was here Cézanne became Cézanne, departing from the style that Pissarro would develop into Pointillism, and instead breaking the landscape down into larger planes of colour. A style admired by Matisse and Picasso, in which he would later abandon traditional linear perspective and warp his subject matter to his liking, demonstrated in the still-lifes displayed in the next room and laying the historical groundwork for Cubism.
Over the course of the next rooms we see the wild energy of Cézanne’s earlier work subdued into a more sombre and melancholic style and palette. Toward the end of his life Cézanne began focussing his painting on Mont Sainte-Victoire. The stability and strength of the mountain is translated into his style, and the artist seems to be obsessed with capturing the permanence of the mountain against a fleeting and impressionistic landscape. As his health declined Cézanne painted some of his best, yet most macabre work, with skulls piled among the oranges and apples of his still-lifes.
It is easy to forget the impact Cézanne’s work has had on the history of modern painting; a nice curatorial touch at the exhibition is the inclusion of the paintings’ provenance, detailing which other renowned painters owned the paintings displayed, thereby directly tracing the influence Cézanne had on the likes of artists such as Monet, Manet, Gauguin and Picasso. While at times his work lacks technical ability, his experimental approach often breaks through to create a masterpiece. He was a truly sensational painter and arguably the father of modern art.
The EY Exhibition: Cézanne is showing at Tate Modern until 12th March 2022
Don’t forget to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!
The Tate Modern’s Cézanne exhibition scopes the artist's artistic development taking us through pivotal moments in the evolution of his influential style. The exhibition is arranged chronologically in thematic rooms with a focus on the artist’s still-lifes and landscapes, as well as, of course, his infamous bathers. We follow Cézanne from his roots in Provence to Paris and back and forth throughout his life, culminating with landscapes of Sainte-Victoire at the height of his artistic development.
The first room introduces the artist with two paintings, a self-portrait, of which he made many (though this is the only one to feature in the exhibition) and a still-life, the genre that brought him so much acclaim. Exiting this room, we move to paintings of the artist's formative years; like much of Cézanne’s work, while there are stand out pieces others are lost in the noise. Some of his early landscapes, for instance View of Auvers (1873-5), could be seen as naive and lacking direction. His style at this time is violent, which the display guide claims reflects the nature of contemporary French society; the dark side of the Belle Époque was a societal obsession with stories of murder and gore. Cézanne’s nude figures lunge and grope each other in what is hard to decipher as being a brawl or an orgy. Globs of fleshy brushstrokes formulate incongruous limbs; huge buttocks and pin-sized heads roll around on these small, busy canvases.
France during Cézanne’s lifetime was still recovering from the revolution of 1789 and political debate was occupied by groups with competing visions for the future of the country. The early work in these rooms also touch on recent research that has revealed Cézanne to be more engaged in political and social commentary than previously thought. The painting Scipio (1866–1868) is one of the stand out pieces of the exhibition, a large canvas depicting a seated black model with his bare back to the viewer. The curators suggest the composition may have been inspired by the image of an enslaved man with horrific scars that became an emblem for abolitionism.
Cézanne never really took to the city and always wanted to be seen as an outsider among his childhood friend Emile Zola’s new band of cosmopolitan Parisian friends. His style set him apart from other artists and he was frequently rejected from the Academie des Beaux Arts. However, it was at the independent art school, Academie Suisse, that he developed a lasting friendship with the artist Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), nine years his senior. While Pissarro would go on to develop Pointillism, dabbing the canvas with precise dots of paint, Cézanne would develop his ‘parallel line’ style. This method of painting became known as ‘sensations style’, a more emotion-based exploration of seeing. In his own words: ‘I paint as I see, as I feel’. This style led to little commercial success in his early years but would be fundamental to the future trajectory of Western painting.
During the Franco-Prussian war Cézanne hid, avoiding conscription in the sleepy coastal village of L’Estaque near Marseille. His work in this period is dominated by intimate family portraits and coastal landscapes. At L’Estaque he mastered his technique; modern materials and commercially produced lightweight tools allowed for Cézanne to venture out into the country and paint ‘en plein air’. It was here Cézanne became Cézanne, departing from the style that Pissarro would develop into Pointillism, and instead breaking the landscape down into larger planes of colour. A style admired by Matisse and Picasso, in which he would later abandon traditional linear perspective and warp his subject matter to his liking, demonstrated in the still-lifes displayed in the next room and laying the historical groundwork for Cubism.
Over the course of the next rooms we see the wild energy of Cézanne’s earlier work subdued into a more sombre and melancholic style and palette. Toward the end of his life Cézanne began focussing his painting on Mont Sainte-Victoire. The stability and strength of the mountain is translated into his style, and the artist seems to be obsessed with capturing the permanence of the mountain against a fleeting and impressionistic landscape. As his health declined Cézanne painted some of his best, yet most macabre work, with skulls piled among the oranges and apples of his still-lifes.
It is easy to forget the impact Cézanne’s work has had on the history of modern painting; a nice curatorial touch at the exhibition is the inclusion of the paintings’ provenance, detailing which other renowned painters owned the paintings displayed, thereby directly tracing the influence Cézanne had on the likes of artists such as Monet, Manet, Gauguin and Picasso. While at times his work lacks technical ability, his experimental approach often breaks through to create a masterpiece. He was a truly sensational painter and arguably the father of modern art.
The EY Exhibition: Cézanne is showing at Tate Modern until 12th March 2022
Don’t forget to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!
The Tate Modern’s Cézanne exhibition scopes the artist's artistic development taking us through pivotal moments in the evolution of his influential style. The exhibition is arranged chronologically in thematic rooms with a focus on the artist’s still-lifes and landscapes, as well as, of course, his infamous bathers. We follow Cézanne from his roots in Provence to Paris and back and forth throughout his life, culminating with landscapes of Sainte-Victoire at the height of his artistic development.
The first room introduces the artist with two paintings, a self-portrait, of which he made many (though this is the only one to feature in the exhibition) and a still-life, the genre that brought him so much acclaim. Exiting this room, we move to paintings of the artist's formative years; like much of Cézanne’s work, while there are stand out pieces others are lost in the noise. Some of his early landscapes, for instance View of Auvers (1873-5), could be seen as naive and lacking direction. His style at this time is violent, which the display guide claims reflects the nature of contemporary French society; the dark side of the Belle Époque was a societal obsession with stories of murder and gore. Cézanne’s nude figures lunge and grope each other in what is hard to decipher as being a brawl or an orgy. Globs of fleshy brushstrokes formulate incongruous limbs; huge buttocks and pin-sized heads roll around on these small, busy canvases.
France during Cézanne’s lifetime was still recovering from the revolution of 1789 and political debate was occupied by groups with competing visions for the future of the country. The early work in these rooms also touch on recent research that has revealed Cézanne to be more engaged in political and social commentary than previously thought. The painting Scipio (1866–1868) is one of the stand out pieces of the exhibition, a large canvas depicting a seated black model with his bare back to the viewer. The curators suggest the composition may have been inspired by the image of an enslaved man with horrific scars that became an emblem for abolitionism.
Cézanne never really took to the city and always wanted to be seen as an outsider among his childhood friend Emile Zola’s new band of cosmopolitan Parisian friends. His style set him apart from other artists and he was frequently rejected from the Academie des Beaux Arts. However, it was at the independent art school, Academie Suisse, that he developed a lasting friendship with the artist Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), nine years his senior. While Pissarro would go on to develop Pointillism, dabbing the canvas with precise dots of paint, Cézanne would develop his ‘parallel line’ style. This method of painting became known as ‘sensations style’, a more emotion-based exploration of seeing. In his own words: ‘I paint as I see, as I feel’. This style led to little commercial success in his early years but would be fundamental to the future trajectory of Western painting.
During the Franco-Prussian war Cézanne hid, avoiding conscription in the sleepy coastal village of L’Estaque near Marseille. His work in this period is dominated by intimate family portraits and coastal landscapes. At L’Estaque he mastered his technique; modern materials and commercially produced lightweight tools allowed for Cézanne to venture out into the country and paint ‘en plein air’. It was here Cézanne became Cézanne, departing from the style that Pissarro would develop into Pointillism, and instead breaking the landscape down into larger planes of colour. A style admired by Matisse and Picasso, in which he would later abandon traditional linear perspective and warp his subject matter to his liking, demonstrated in the still-lifes displayed in the next room and laying the historical groundwork for Cubism.
Over the course of the next rooms we see the wild energy of Cézanne’s earlier work subdued into a more sombre and melancholic style and palette. Toward the end of his life Cézanne began focussing his painting on Mont Sainte-Victoire. The stability and strength of the mountain is translated into his style, and the artist seems to be obsessed with capturing the permanence of the mountain against a fleeting and impressionistic landscape. As his health declined Cézanne painted some of his best, yet most macabre work, with skulls piled among the oranges and apples of his still-lifes.
It is easy to forget the impact Cézanne’s work has had on the history of modern painting; a nice curatorial touch at the exhibition is the inclusion of the paintings’ provenance, detailing which other renowned painters owned the paintings displayed, thereby directly tracing the influence Cézanne had on the likes of artists such as Monet, Manet, Gauguin and Picasso. While at times his work lacks technical ability, his experimental approach often breaks through to create a masterpiece. He was a truly sensational painter and arguably the father of modern art.
The EY Exhibition: Cézanne is showing at Tate Modern until 12th March 2022
Don’t forget to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!
