Paul Cézanne

Paul Cézanne (pronounced say-ZAN, and also siz-AN or say-ZAHN in different English contexts; French: [pɔl sezan]; Occitan: Pau Cesana; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French painter associated with Post-Impressionism. His work introduced fresh ways of depicting subjects, shaped early 20th-century avant-garde movements, and served as a link between late 19th-century Impressionism and early Cubism. His early output showed the influence of Romanticism—for instance, the murals he painted at the Jas de Bouffan country house—and Realism. But through close study of Impressionist techniques, he developed a new visual language. He changed standard approaches to perspective and broke with academic conventions, focusing instead on the underlying structure of objects and the formal elements of art. He aimed to renew traditional design methods using Impressionist ideas about colour space and modulation. Cézanne’s brushwork is often repetitive and exploratory, making his style highly distinctive. He built up complex fields with planes of colour and small strokes. His paintings reveal his deep, sustained examination of whatever he depicted. For much of his career, his work met with incomprehension and mockery from critics. Until the late 1890s, it was mainly fellow artists like Camille Pissarro and the dealer Ambroise Vollard who recognized his value. They were among his first buyers. In 1895, Vollard mounted the first solo exhibition of Cézanne’s work at his Paris gallery, which prompted wider attention. Both Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso reportedly called Cézanne “the father of us all.”

**Life and work**

**Early years and family**

Paul Cézanne was born on 19 January 1839 at 28 rue de l’Opéra in Aix-en-Provence. His father, Louis-Auguste Cézanne (1798–1886), was a milliner who later became a banker; his mother was Anne-Elisabeth-Honorine Aubert (1814–1897). They married on 29 January 1844. Paul had two younger sisters: Marie, born in 1841, and Rose, born in June 1854. The family originally came from Saint-Sauveur in the Hautes-Alpes region of Occitania. He was baptized on 22 February at the Église de la Madeleine, with his grandmother and uncle Louis as godparents, and later in life became a devout Catholic. His father, from Saint-Zacharie in the Var, co-founded the banking firm Banque Cézanne et Cabassol, which thrived throughout Paul’s life, giving him financial security rare among his peers and eventually a large inheritance. His mother was described as “vivacious and romantic, but quick to take offence.” Cézanne derived his outlook and vision of life from her. He attended primary school daily with his sisters Marie and Rose. At age ten, Cézanne entered the Saint Joseph school in Aix. His classmates included the future sculptor Philippe Solari and Henri Gasquet, father of writer Joachim Gasquet, who later published a book about Cézanne in 1921. In 1852, he entered the Collège Bourbon in Aix (now Collège Mignet), where he became friends with Émile Zola, who was in a lower grade, and Baptistin Baille. The three were known as “Les Trois Inséparables” (The Three Inseparables). This was likely the most carefree period of his life: they swam and fished along the Arc River, debated art, read Homer and Virgil, and wrote their own poems. Cézanne often composed verses in Latin. Zola encouraged him to take poetry more seriously, but Cézanne treated it as a hobby. He stayed at the school for six years, though he was a day scholar during the last two. In 1857, he began attending the Free Municipal School of Drawing in Aix, studying under Joseph Gibert, a Spanish monk. At his authoritarian father’s insistence—who saw Paul as the heir to the bank Cézanne & Cabassol—Cézanne enrolled in the law faculty of the University of Aix-en-Provence in 1859 and attended lectures in jurisprudence. He spent two years on this unwanted study but increasingly neglected it, preferring drawing and writing poetry. From 1859, he took evening courses at the École de dessin d’Aix-en-Provence, housed in the Musée Granet, taught by academic painter Joseph Gibert (1806–1884). In August 1859, he won second prize in the figure studies course. That same year, his father bought the Jas de Bouffan (House of the Wind) estate. This partly dilapidated baroque residence, once home to the provincial governor, became Cézanne’s long-term home and workplace. The building and the old trees in its park were among his favorite subjects. In 1860, he got permission to paint the drawing-room walls, creating large murals of the four seasons—spring, summer, autumn, winter—now in the Petit Palais in Paris. He ironically signed them as “Ingres,” an artist he did not appreciate, and dated the winter scene 1811, a reference to Ingres’ painting *Jupiter and Thetis*, which was on display at the Musée Granet. Despite his banker father’s objections, Cézanne committed to an artistic career and left Aix for Paris in 1861. Zola, already living in the capital, strongly urged him to stop hesitating and join him. Eventually, his father reconciled and supported his choice, on condition that he undertake regular study, having given up hope of Paul taking over the bank. Cézanne later inherited 400,000 francs from his father, freeing him from all financial worries.