Art

Cezanne – The story behind the landscapes

Paul Cézanne is a painter mostly associated with serene landscapes, but what is the reason? What is the underlying story of this amazing turn of the 20^th century artist?

Guardian art critic Jonathan Jones, wrote an amazing article on the painting of Lake Annecy as an analogy to true face of Paul Cezanne.

This peacful landscape, done in the French Alps, “tells us everything we need to know about the artist” according to, Guardian art critic, Jonathan Jones. “You see it not just in a work like Le Lac d’Annecy, but every time he paints an apple. He loves the geometry of the apple – the sphere found in nature – but instead of coldly drawing it with a compass, his eye lovingly follows its contours, and his imagination passionately reconstructs the roundness and fullness of the fruit’s form.”

There are anecdotal remarks in this story, which paint a very interesting picture to that period in time. Cézanne was adopting a style quite at odds with his personality. As if Cezanne, by trying to become constructive, created Modernist Art. He almost seems incidental to his greatness. Read Jones’s article “Murder, Lust, and Landscapes”…

If you’re in London between 4 October 2006 and 7 January 2007, drop by the National Gallery to see the painting in the exhibition Cézanne in Britain (admission is free).