Paul Cézanne
Jon KearA new, critical account of the life and work of influential French painter Paul Cézanne.
Few artists have exerted such an influence on modern art as Paul Cézanne. Picasso, Braque and Matisse all acknowledged a profound debt to his painting, and many historians regard him as the father of modernism. This new biography reexamines Cézanne’s life and art, discussing the central events and people who shaped his work and placing his oeuvre in the context of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century art and culture.
Jon Kear examines Cézanne’s youth in Provence, a formative period which left a deep and abiding impression on the artist’s painting, as well as exploring his turbulent time in Paris and the larger-than-life artistic persona he created for himself during these years. His initial style, characterized by violent and explicit subject-matter and a rugged manner of painting, gave rise to an enduring mythology of the artist. Paul Cézanne explores the personal and artistic relationships that influenced Cézanne: from his close friendship with Émile Zola to his artistic dialogue with Manet, collaboration with Camille Pissarro and association with the Impressionists. Above all, Paul Cézanne tells the story of his life as a part of the pivotal shift towards the twentieth century, illuminating how much his work and ideas helped to usher it in.
A new, critical account of the life and work of influential French painter Paul Cézanne.
Few artists have exerted such an influence on modern art as Paul Cézanne. Picasso, Braque and Matisse all acknowledged a profound debt to his painting, and many historians regard him as the father of modernism. This new biography reexamines Cézanne’s life and art, discussing the central events and people who shaped his work and placing his oeuvre in the context of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century art and culture.
Jon Kear examines Cézanne’s youth in Provence, a formative period which left a deep and abiding impression on the artist’s painting, as well as exploring his turbulent time in Paris and the larger-than-life artistic persona he created for himself during these years. His initial style, characterized by violent and explicit subject-matter and a rugged manner of painting, gave rise to an enduring mythology of the artist. Paul Cézanne explores the personal and artistic relationships that influenced Cézanne: from his close friendship with Émile Zola to his artistic dialogue with Manet, collaboration with Camille Pissarro and association with the Impressionists. Above all, Paul Cézanne tells the story of his life as a part of the pivotal shift towards the twentieth century, illuminating how much his work and ideas helped to usher it in.
-
'
a concise biography of the artist and a thorough survey of recent, and occasionally not-so-recent, trends in the literature on the artist. It is this emphasis on critical modes of understanding that most clearly distinguishes the offering from other readily available, short, and modestly-priced primers on the artist . . . provides a superior entrée into the wider field of Cézanne studies
'H-France Reviews
Introduction: The Myth of Cézanne
1. Memories of Youth
2. An Artist of Tempérament
3. Pissarro, Landscape and Impression
4. Portrait of a Woman
5. Solitary Pleasures
6. Provence, the Peasantry and Montagne Sainte-Victoire
Epilogue
References
Select Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Photo Acknowledgments
Jon Kear is a Lecturer in History of Art at the University of Kent. He is the author of Degas: His Life and Works in 500 Images (2012), Portraits and a Dream: Art and Language (2011) and Sunless (1999), a study of the film-maker Chris Marker.