Paul Cezanne
Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) was a French painter from Aix-en-Provence whose work explored the relationships between observed forms, colour and pictorial structure. He studied drawing while still a student and briefly pursued law in accordance with his father's wishes. After leaving legal studies, he moved between Aix and Paris, attending the Académie Suisse and studying earlier paintings in the Louvre.
His friendship with Camille Pissarro was important to his development. They worked near Pontoise and Auvers during the early 1870s, bringing Cézanne into close contact with painters associated with Impressionism. He exhibited with the group twice, although the museum's account of The Brook distinguishes his pursuit of balanced forms from an emphasis on fleeting atmospheric effects alone.
The works represented here show both sustained composition and the openness of study. In The Brook, foliage and water interlock through adjoining colour areas; in Sheet of Studies, separate drawn figures retain their independence across the page. These are different kinds of looking, but both invite attention to how an image is assembled. Cézanne's marks remain active within the represented subject, allowing the eye to move continually between recognisable objects and their arrangement on a flat surface. Neither drawing nor painting needs to conceal the decisions through which it develops.
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