Synopses & Reviews
Published on the centenary of the death of Paul Cand#233;zanne (1839and#150;1906), this stunning book celebrates the artistand#8217;s depictions of his native Provence. While Cand#233;zanne is recognized as one of the fathers of the modern movement, this publication focuses on his own sense of achievement, especially as a painter exploring the landscape in and around his hometown of Aix-en- Provence. Although he spent time elsewhere in France, especially Paris, Cand#233;zanne repeatedly returned to Provence, where he lived nearly all of the last twenty years of his life.In studios at the Jas de Bouffan and at Les Lauves, and on painting expeditions into the surrounding countryside, Cand#233;zanne created some of his most original and compelling works, not only landscapes but also portraits ofand#160; local characters, friends, and family; still lifes, and imaginative figure paintings, such as the monumental bathers painted in the last decade of his life.Beautifully illustrated with some 160 paintings and watercolors, Cand#233;zanne in Provence offers fascinating insights into a true genius in the history of art and his beloved native countryside.
Review
and#8220;A stellar record of the painterand#8217;s life and work, this book is a must-have for art enthusiasts.and#8221;and#8212;
Publishers WeeklyReview
and#8220;[A] lavishly illustrated and gorgeously produced book . . . A visual treat richly enhanced by scholarly research.and#8221;and#8212;
Art TimesReview
and#8220;Enthusiastically recommended for academic libraries; essential for art collections.and#8221;
Synopsis
A celebration of Cand#233;zanneand#8217;s remarkable and varied depictions of Provence
Synopsis
In his brief text, Denis Coutagne considers Cezanne for the enigma he and his art may always remain, but within the most elucidating of all possible contexts: Provence, especially around Aix, where Cezanne was born in 1839 and where he died in 1906, virtually "with brush in hand". This was the richly colored, sun-drenched environment in which Cezanne grew up with his closest friend, the novelist Emile Zola, conceived his passion for painting, developed his unique aesthetic, and painted his late and greatest masterpieces - the paintings devoted to such local motifs as the Jas de Bouffan, the Chateau-Noir, the Bibemus quarry, the nude bathers, L'Estaque, and Mont Sainte-Victoire. No other place could provide the dramatic contrasts of light and dark, color and chiaroscuro that were so at one with the brooding soul and luminous vision of Paul Cezanne, or so consistent with his attempts to produce an art of clarity and calm by bringing into dynamic equilibrium a host of warring opposites: wild nature and orderly form, the momentary and the immutable, color and line, surface and depth, density and transparency, awkwardness and grace, and, not least, his own personal conflicts, among them a conservative, Provencal background and unruly, bohemian tendencies.
About the Author
Philip Conisbee is senior curator of European paintings and head of the department of French paintings at the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Denis Coutagne is director of the Musand#233;e Granet, Aix-en-Provence.