Cezanne at Home

The man who is now considered to be the father of Modern Art, and who inspired Matisse, Picasso and even Rothko, had difficult beginnings that did not destine him for greatness. He failed the entrance exam for the École des Beaux-Arts and was excluded from the official Salon of 1863 – and from the subsequent ones. His painting technique was misunderstood by critics, the public and for a long time even by his peers. The artist and collector Henri Dobler went so far as to call him “the greatest fraud of the century.”

There is no accented “é” in “Cezanne.” The artist himself never put one on his signatures and would have been offended to see one added! However, writing “Cézanne” is still a common mistake, partly because it facilitates pronunciation of the “say” sound in French

In the family’s mansion, the Bastide du Jas de Bouffan, the young Cezanne painted directly on the plaster walls of the living room. After his death, these frescoes were transferred to canvas before being exhibited in major museums. In August 2023, a restoration project revealed a previously unseen work measuring between 5 and 6 sq. m., which had been hidden under layers of paint.

On the night of 12 August 1961, eight works by Cezanne vanished from the Pavillon Vendôme (Aix-en-Provence) museum. The intrepid thieves scaled the walls and broke in through a first-floor window. Over the subsequent 18 months, the gang raided eight museums, galleries and private collections. The loot then reappeared, abandoned in a car, in April 1962.

Cezanne met French writer Émile Zola at school and the pair remained friends for 40 years. However, the two men fell out over the publication of The Masterpiece, a novel in which Cezanne recognised himself in the unflattering character of Claude Lantier, a failed and bitter painter.

Article from the Magazine Esprit de France.

Couverture - © Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, États-Unis

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