Paul Cézanne in 10 Paintings

Though Paul Cézanne is also known as an Impressionist, his later work and ideas are perhaps more prominent. While mostly keeping with the brilliant colors of Impressionism, Cézanne otherwise rejected the movement’s limitations, instead focusing on the structures of objects. Inspired by the works of Titian and Peter Paul Rubens, with an eye for the geometric shapes of nature, Cézanne pioneered the path to Cubism. Cézanne’s most notable works are his dynamic still-lifes; his interpretations of objects can be summed up with is own quote: “Art is a harmony running parallel to nature.”

1. The Basket of Apples, c. 1893

The Basket of Apples is perhaps the best evidence of Cézanne’s influence on Cubists such as Pablo Picasso. While the shapes of the apples, bread, and wine bottle resemble real life, the rectangular table on which they sit is physically incoherent. The composition reveals only one angle of the table as it slants forward. The titular basket of apples also leans forward on top of a base, kept upright by the bottle or the thick tablecloth. The apples especially look as if they are about to roll forward out of the frame.

All of this is highlighted by Cézanne’s signature brushstrokes and bright colors. This still-life is one of Cézanne’s greatest examples of the artist’s boundlessness in the representation of real objects or scenes.

2. The Fishermen (Fantastic Scene), c. 1875

This piece by Cézanne was exhibited at the third Impressionist exhibition in 1877 in Paris. A man in black walks by a group of fishermen and well-dressed women enjoying a colorful, sunny day near a shore. It’s a warm, lovely scene. The painting is an early example of Cézanne’s shift from his darker palette in the previous decade to the brighter tones he revealed at the Impressionist salons in the 1870s. This piece was influenced by the outdoor paintings of Claude Monet and Édouard Manet. He also looked to Renaissance painters for inspiration, such as Titian and Raphael.

3. Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley, 1882–1885

This piece is part of a series of paintings in which Paul Cézanne depicted Montagne Saint-Victoire, a mountain in the south of France. Now full in the throes of practicing en plein air, Cézanne painted this stunning landscape near his sister’s house at the top of a hill. He captured the geometrical forms of nature.

The valley is slabbed in small brushstrokes while the houses look almost like boxes. Meanwhile, the railroad viaduct in the distance, with its arches, is Romanesque in its design. One tree juts out in the center of the frame, its trunk almost melding into the background while its green shrubs contrast with the sky in its hints of blue, purple, and green. This painting is a spectacular achievement of nature’s forms, color, and beauty.

4. Bathers, 1898–1905

The largest of Paul Cézanne’s series of The Bathers paintings, this work is Cézanne’s most remarkable of his recurring portrayals of nude women. Cézanne became more experimental with each painting of the bathers.

This one is almost symmetrical in its construction. The trees on either side form a triangular emphasis on the nude female figures below. They sit on the bank of a river clustered together, laying down or cleaning their clothes. Their forms are abstract while the colors around them are a bit flatter, though still sharp, in comparison to Cézanne’s previous paintings of the bathers. His signature small brushstrokes dominate the treetops, standing in as the vegetation. It is an outstanding work of modern art.

5. Seated Peasant, 1892–1896

Now let us look at Paul Cézanne’s portraiture. The person wistfully presented in this painting is speculated to have been a worker at Jas de Bouffan, Cézanne’s family estate in Aix-en-Provence. He may have even been a card player at one point, another theme Cézanne painted multiple times. In fact, the palette of this portrait is the same as Cézanne’s depictions of men seated at a table playing cards. However, this work reveals one individual facing forward, legs crossed, and an almost melancholy look of reflection on his face. Perhaps he’d rather be playing cards than posting for a portrait. Nonetheless, it is a striking piece that, like all great portraits, instills curiosity and sympathy for its subject.

6. Man in a Blue Smock, c. 1896–1897

The man featured in this portrait also posed for Paul Cézanne’s Card Players paintings in the 1890s. Like many of Cézanne’s later works, this piece is a striking display of density and experimentalism. To the right of the man is a painting of a woman with a parasol. In fact, this was a section of a folding screen in which Cézanne had painted his first work of art. The juxtaposition between this background and the rural worker in blue might suggest the duality of men and women, the distinction of class, or Cézanne’s own playful awareness of his evolution as an artist.

Minute patches of white appear all over the man’s blue smock. These are spots of unpainted canvas. By leaving little patches of white, Cézanne seems to show the imperfection of his examinations while painting the portrait. This intentional revelation of the artist’s painstaking process was another novelty that Cézanne spearheaded, further paving the way to modern art.

7. Maison Maria with a View of the Château Noir, 1895

The identity of the name behind the painting is a mystery, but the subject is not. Cézanne enjoyed painting the buildings in the country of his hometown, Aix-en-Provence. Many of them have stucco walls and red-tiled roofs. This work is a newer iteration of one of his earlier works, The House of the Hanged Man, from 1873. That earlier painting was displayed at the first Impressionist exhibition. In addition to being brighter in color, this version has Cézanne’s late-career formalism. The sky is dense with small, quick brushstrokes while the tree lines are jagged and the road below almost combines with the geometrical buildings it’s leading to. These building landscapes were a major precursor to Picasso and Georges Braque.

8. Still Life with a Ginger Jar and Eggplants, 1893–1894

Back to still-lifes! Paul Cézanne featured this particular ginger jar in many of his still-lifes. In fact, all of these objects are familiar to anyone who loves Cézanne’s still-life paintings. Again, this is another striking portrayal of everyday objects rendered in rich color, geometric shapes, and layered patterns. Perhaps Cézanne’s refrain of these particular objects is meant to enhance the warmth of familiarity we feel being still at home, seeing them with fresh angles every time we move them or use them.

Note: if you like this painting, you can get a high-quality print of a similar still-life by Cézanne under this link.

9. The Great Pine, 1890–1896

This is one of my favorite paintings by Paul Cézanne. Like many works of art, I can’t quite pinpoint why it resonates with me so much. Perhaps it’s the splendor of its lush display of blues and greens. Or maybe it’s the drama of its subject.

A tall tree dominates the composition, tall and grand yet it seemingly appears to be struggling under the force of something. However, Cézanne doesn’t depict any weather or some other external power on the tree. The tree stands alone bent and jagged, its dynamism and stature dwarfing the trees under it, bending away from it themselves. It’s extraordinary and in my opinion, the vigor and vitality of this piece is Cézanne’s style at his best.

10. Pyramid of Skulls, 1901

I hope the reader will forgive my morbid humor including this painting as the final one on the list. Cézanne, though obviously unbeknownst to him, had just five years left of his life when he painted this formation of skulls. He was, however, preoccupied with death in his later years.

Before he died of pneumonia in 1906, Cézanne painted numerous still-life paintings of skulls in both oils and watercolors. This one presents three skulls in a pyramid. The dark background is perhaps a callback to the darker palette and Romanticism of his very early works. Meanwhile, the three skulls dominate the frame, gratifying in their positioning, though disconcerting in their assertiveness. No one did still-life (or still-death) paintings like Paul Cézanne.