Paul Cezanne (1839-1906)

In 1861, he went to Paris, to his childhood friend Emile Zola, to learn the art of painting. He studied at the Swiss Academy and the Louvre. He met artists such as Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, Guillaumin. Delacroix admired Courbet, Manet. He returned to Aix after failing to pass the entrance exams of the Academy of Fine Arts. He devoted all his time to painting and continued to work on painting even though all the paintings he sent to the Salon were turned back.

He painted portraits, still lifes and sometimes landscapes, copying the works of old Italian masters. His works during this period include Father of the Painter, Negro Scipio (1865, Museum of Sao Paulo), Portrait of Louis-Auguste Cezanne Reading l''Evenement (1866), The Man in the Cotton Cap (1865-67), Painter Achille Emperaire. Paintings Portrait of ' ' ' (1866), Paul Alexis Reading Zola (1869), Portrait of Hasir Hatcal Boyer (1869-70) and Magdalen or Elem (1866-68), Black Marble Clock (1869- 70, private col., America) and Still Life with Tin Teapot (1869-70), and landscapes titled Melting Snows in Estaque (1870) and Wine Market (1872). In these works, thick layers of color and black shadows attract attention. It is seen that he uses an unusual white color in addition to the dark and dreary colors that black, brown, gray and Prussian blue predominate.

Cezanne's friendship with the Impressionists, and especially with Pissarro, whom he met at the Swiss Academy, allowed him to leave the dull colors and use the bright, light-toned colors of the Impressionists. He abandoned the technique of thick color layers and turned to the punctuation method with light brush strokes and used surfaces that seemed to be coagulated. This period, 1872-82, is Cezanne's Impressionist period. A Modern Olympia (1873), The House of the Hanged Man (1873, Louvre Museum, Paris), Yiddish Flowers (1875), Madame Cezanne with the Red Arm (1877, private arm., America), Portrait of Victor Chocquet (1876-77), Many of his famous works belong to this period, such as L'Estaque (1878-79, Louvre), Cote du Jalais (1879-82) in Pontoise, Poplars (1879-82), and Maincy Bridge (1879, Louvre).

Cezanne's art, which departed from the rules of impressionism, quickly developed towards an attitude that was simplified but more elaborated and placed more emphasis on structure. He enriched his style with elements stemming from his imagination and observations. He combined the strength of pattern with the expressive sensitivity of colors. The attitude of Cezanne, who did not follow the classical perspective rules very well, later became the pioneer of the Cubists, which he greatly influenced.

Meanwhile, in 1886, they broke up with Emile Zola. He married Hortense Fiquet. Portraits of His Wife, Still Life with Blue Vase and Basket (Louvre), Boy in Red Vest (18900-95), Woman with Pot (1890-95, Louvre) and Card Players (various versions around 1890), Portrait of Gustave Geffroy (1895) and His art reached balance and competence with his paintings called A Jester.

Removing depth in his works, the artist applied a folding perspective. Still lifes such as Peppermint High School, Apples and Oranges (1895-1900, Louvre) are major works that emphasize this orientation.

The artist's last decade is known as his lyrical period. In this period, he produced flamboyant and daring works by focusing on a certain lyricism and freer brush strokes. He also used the faster method, the watercolor technique. In his works, signs of the definite rational approach peculiar to cubism, which is just beginning, are selected. At the same time, the features of the Fovist movement, which uses colors and forms with a lyrical understanding, are also striking. His paintings Mount Sainte-Victoire, Lake Annecy (1896), Rocks and Branches at Bibemus (1904) and Black Castle (1904-06) are such works. Cezanne's art reached its peak with his painting Les Grandes Baigneuses-Women Washing (1902-06), which he made in the last years of his life. This painting is a magnificent work with its rhythmic composition, precisely placed planes and the harmony of the whole painting, and it is reminiscent of Picasso's painting Young Girls from Avignon, painted at about the same time.

The works of Cezanne, especially after the Salon d''Automne' opened in Paris in 1907, XX. YY. counted among the most important sources of his painting. Cezanne greatly influenced the new generation of fauves, cubists, and abstract artists who would later give birth to modern painting.