Day 329 - Cezanne


January 16, 2023

Visiting the museum the day before a big trip seemed kind of crazy, but discovering that Gallery 826 is devoted to Cezanne erased all doubts about the wisdom of the excursion.  The room contains some of the artist's most famous works, including two portraits of his wife and one of his uncle (this time wearing a white jacket and a blue tasseled cap), "The Card Players" (a larger version of which is at the Barnes, I learn), a wonderful painting of Mont Sainte-Victoire, and several still lifes of apples. The introductory placard is helpful, pointing out that Cezanne created shapes by using different colors of paint. 

My initial impulse was to write about the Mont Sainte-Victoire landscape, but then I saw his "View of the Domaine Saint-Joseph,"  Painted in the late 1880s and measuring about 30 inches wide and 24 inches high, the work depicts a Jesuit estate nestled on a tree-covered hill near Aix.  The contours of the land and the forms of the trees are carefully created by the use of various shades of green, but the loose brushwork creates a sense of spontaneity and even, for me, joy. I read that the painting was exhibited at the Armory Show of 1913 and was the first Cezanne to be acquired by an American museum. Great that the Met got it! And great, too, that civic-minded Americans of means contributed to the museum and made the acquisition possible.
 

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