Paul Cezanne Essay, Research Paper
When most people think of Paul Cezanne, they think of two
words genius and painting. For these two words he is consider by
far to be the Father of modern painting. Cezanne was born in
Aix-en-Provence in 1839. He was to die in the same town in 1906.
His life and art work was greatly influenced by this small town
in France.
He was the son of a shrewd business man, Louis-Auguste
Cezanne. As a boy growing up in Aix, Cezanne loved to study Greek
and Latin literature. At the age of thirteen, Paul met Emile Zola
at the College Bourbon. The friendship was very important for
both of the young men and lasted until the publication of Zola’s
novel L’Oeuvre in 1886, in which the writer portrays an
unsuccessful artist whose character based upon Paul. Deeply hurt,
Cezanne broke forever with his longtime friend. At school, the
boys were nearly inseparable. Both were interested in writing and
literature. Emile and Paul would write letters and rhymed verse
to each other for the next decade or so in which they expressed
their most intimate feelings and emotions together with
information about their everyday life. Paul’s father disapproved
of Zola and his family especially after Emile’s father had died.
In February 1858 Zola moved to Paris together with his
mother. Which made Paul want to go to Paris to join up with
Emile. When in 1861 he finally obtained his father’s permission
to study art in Paris, Cezanne’s first attempt to settle down
there failed. Disillusioned with the art world, he returned to
his family after only six months and entered his father’s bank as
a clerk. The following year he went to Paris again, and this time
he stayed. During this years he lead a rather frugal life due to
his father’s meager allowance. Every year he submitted canvases
to the artists’ Salons, but was regularly rejected. Cezanne did
his first show with a group named the "Society of Painters,
Draftsman, Sculptors, and Engravers" comprised of Pierre-Auguste
Renoir, Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, Pissarro and Cezanne
himself. The group’s first show was in April in 1874, they
received bad revise. Cezanne did one more show with that group,
third for the group, in 1877. That show went better than the
first one.
"Unlike his artist friends, he generally avoided depiction’s
of modern life and instead painted landscapes and still-lives of
more classical conception"(Lallemand 10). Cezanne had many
different characteristics of his work enigmatic quality, the
look of someone who were essentially a sculptor, no seasonal
variance in his landscapes. In the painting The House of the
Hanged Man ,painted in 1872-1873, there is an eerie feeling
illuminating form the piece. It is achieved by the the dull
shapes, cool colors, and thick granular patching. The look of
someone who was essentially a sculptor in present in The Negro
Scipion painted in 1867. Where you can easily see the definition
of muscle and the curvature of the human body. In most of Paul
Cezanne’s landscapes you can not tell what season it is suppose
to represent. Spring, fall or summer. In Mill on the Couleuvre
near Pontoise the fields are green and lush but is it spring or
summer? That is for the viewer to interpret what season it is.
Paul Cezanne who influenced many, had a great impact on all
that follow his lead. His life is represented in his work which
shows us a great deal. The Father on Modern Painting is one of
great accomplishments.