Paul Cézanne

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Paul Cézanne: Still Life with Ginger Jar, Sugar Bowl, and Oranges

Paul Cézanne: Pines and Rocks (Fontainebleau?)

Paul Cézanne: Mont Sainte-Victoire, Seen from the Bibemus Quarry

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Paul Cézanne summary

Paul Cézanne

Q: Why is Paul Cézanne so famous?

Paul Cézanne was a French Post-Impressionist painter, whose works influenced the development of many 20th-century art movements, especially Cubism . Discredited by the public during most of his life, Cézanne challenged conventional values of painting in the 19th century, insisting on the integrity of the painting itself regardless of subject.

Q: What is Paul Cézanne famous for?

Paul Cézanne is known for his search for solutions to problems of representation. Such landscapes as Mont Sainte-Victoire (c. 1902–06) have the radical quality of simultaneously representing deep space and flat design. He is also famous for his many still lifes and portraits, including Madame Cézanne in a Red Armchair (c. 1877).

Q: What was Paul Cézanne’s family like?

Paul Cézanne was the son of a well-to-do bourgeois family. He hid from them his mistress, Marie-Hortense Fiquet, with whom he had a son, Paul, Jr. Cézanne married Fiquet 17 years after meeting her, but the couple often lived apart, and Cézanne excluded her from his will.

Q: How was Paul Cézanne educated?

Paul Cézanne initially entered law school under the direction of his father, a successful banker, but eventually persuaded his father to allow him to study painting in Paris. Cézanne left the Académie Suisse after five months but later met the Impressionists with whom he showed often while pursuing his own considerations in painting.

Q: How did Paul Cézanne die?

Paul Cézanne suffered from diabetes for many years, and in his 60s the illness became more serious. In his late 60s he succumbed to pneumonia and died a few days later.

French artist

Written by René Huyghe

Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Nov 29, 2024 • Article History

Quick Facts

Born:: January 19, 1839, Aix-en-Provence, France

Died:: October 22, 1906, Aix-en-Provence (aged 67)

Notable Works:: “Bathers”; “Snow at Estaque”; “The Card Players”; “The House of the Suicide”; “The Sea at L’Estaque”; “The Wine Market”

Movement / Style:: Impressionism; Post-Impressionism

On the Web:: National Endowment for the Humanities - Paul Cézanne Revered the Old Masters, yet Influenced Waves of Modernists (Nov. 29, 2024)

See all related content

Why is Paul Cézanne so famous?

What is Paul Cézanne famous for?

What was Paul Cézanne’s family like?

How was Paul Cézanne educated?

How did Paul Cézanne die?

Paul Cézanne (born January 19, 1839, Aix-en-Provence, France—died October 22, 1906, Aix-en-Provence) was a French painter, one of the greatest of the Post-Impressionists, whose works and ideas were influential in the aesthetic development of many 20th-century artists and art movements, especially Cubism. Cézanne’s art, misunderstood and discredited by the public during most of his life, grew out of Impressionism and eventually challenged all the conventional values of painting in the 19th century because of his insistence on personal expression and on the integrity of the painting itself, regardless of subject matter. Cézanne was the son of a well-to-do bourgeois family. ...(100 of 2547 words)

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