Brief Biography And Analysis Of Renaissance Painters
Paul Cézanne was born on January 19, 1839, as the son of a wealthy banker in the southern French town of Aix-en-Provence. Cézanne develops artistic interest at an early age and joins his friend and author Emile Zola in Paris in 1861, despite his father's protests. He admired the works of Eugène Delacroix, Gustave Courbet and Edouard Manet. Though attracted by the more radical art forms in Paris, he destroys many canvases during depressive moments and returns home full of self-doubt. A year spent working with his father, however, convinced him to try a painter's life again. Cézanne's early works were dark and composed of heavy, fluid pigment suggesting the moody, romantic expression of previous generations.
At 30, Cézanne changes his style and his habits. The black and morbid atmosphere of his painting slowly changes as he concentrates on landscape subjects. This period is also known as "constructive", characterized by the grouping of parallel, hatched brushstrokes that have the power to build a feeling of mass. Few years later, Pissarro introduces him to Impressionist painting and his work is finally exhibited together with other Impressionist works in 1874.
Pissarro's influence is seen through the somewhat lightened palette. However, Cézanne reacted against the lack of structure in the Impressionist paintings and said that he intended to make Impressionism into "something solid and durable, like the art of the museums". He did innovate beyond Impressionism and is ranked alongside the Post-Impressionist artists Seurat, Van Gogh and Gauguin. For many years, still-lifes and landscapes were Cézanne's main topics.
The next few years, Cézanne becomes increasingly isolated from his family in Paris while he stays in Aix. Cutting himself off from the outer world, he lives the life of a recluse. In his late fifties however, Cézanne's work finally began to attract the attention it deserves. Ambroise Vollard, a renowned art dealer, buys every...
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