I recently attended a fine exhibition of the work of Paul Cezanne. (Tate Modern, London until 12 March, 2023)

'There are two things in the painter, the eye and the mind; each of them should aid the other.’

Cezanne painted intense, almost abstract, landscapes from flat planes of bold colour. He gave us enigmatic portraits that capture the sensation of being in the room with the sitter. He created still lifes that are hypnotically vivid and spatially disorientating. He demonstrated that infinite opportunities can be offered by a narrow range of subjects. He built a bridge between Impressionism and Cubism. And he subverted the traditional hierarchy of art.

'The day is coming when a single carrot, freshly observed, will set off a revolution.’

Paul Cezanne was born in 1839 in Aix-en-Provence, the son of a milliner and later banker. At the age of 22 he set aside his law studies when his schoolmate Emile Zola encouraged him to join the creative community in Paris.

Cezanne sketched in the capital’s museums and attended classes at the Academie Suisse. The city was a hotbed of social and political unrest. Zola was a republican and Cezanne’s mentor Pissaro was an anarchist. But Cezanne was a shy, introverted fellow, less obviously opinionated.

'The world doesn't understand me and I don't understand the world. That's why I've withdrawn from it.’

Cezanne expressed his revolutionary zeal in his art. 

In 1870, in order to avoid conscription in the Franco-Prussian War, Cezanne moved to L’Estaque, a seaside village just west of Marseille. Over a 15 year period he made 40 paintings of the hot dry landscape, endlessly curious for fresh views and perspectives. 

'Here, on the river's verge, I could be busy for months without changing my place, simply leaning a little more to right or left.’

Overlooking an azure sea, the yellow and brown block houses, with their shuttered windows and ochre gable roofs, create jagged, geometric patterns, intersecting with factory chimneys, telegraph poles and the grey viaduct. 

We are witnessing the first steps towards Cubism.

'I believe in the logical development of everything we see and feel through the study of nature.'

Mont Sainte-Victoire, near Aix, featured in over 80 of Cezanne’s works. He painted it from the valley below, from his garden at Jas de Bouffan, from the roof of his studio and from the local quarry. The limestone mountain looms in the distance, a brooding permanent companion, sometimes reduced to just a few blue and white brushstrokes. Whereas the Impressionists had been interested in light, atmosphere and the fleeting moment, Cezanne was fascinated by geology, soil and timeless presence.

'I am a consciousness. The landscape thinks itself through me.'

Still life was traditionally considered an unimportant genre. Great painters tended to concern themselves with historical, mythical and religious themes. But for Cezanne everyday objects represented an opportunity for subversion. Rather than precisely depicting an item itself, he would convey his consciousness of it. This was the art of perception.

'People think how a sugar basin has no physiognomy, no soul. But it changes every day.’

Here are oranges, apples and pears; ginger jar, sugar bowl and water jug - arranged against a piece of patterned fabric, l’indienne. Cezanne presents these things in blazing, iridescent colours, in endless permutations. Sometimes his vision seems warped, the bottles, dishes and fruit at risk of tumbling off the table. A plaster Cupid stumbles clumsily onto the scene. The apples shimmer. The oranges quiver. A dazzling white sheet floats across the canvas. 

'Painting from nature is not copying the object; it is realizing one's sensations.’

Scientists have since observed that Cézanne's woozy imagery corresponds with the way we actually see the world. Our eyes are not static when we look, but are making frequent tiny darting movements, ‘saccades’, between areas of visual interest. 

Cezanne’s portraits are like his still lifes. You get more of a sense of the sitters’ presence than of their personality. Here’s his wife Marie Hortense, whom he painted 29 times over 25 years. She sits in a yellow chair, her lips pursed, her hair parted, her hands clasped on her lap. Here’s his son Paul, a dreamy melancholy soul. And here’s his phlegmatic gardener Vallier, legs crossed, hat pulled over an expressionless face. 

'The truth is in nature, and I shall prove it.’

I was particularly struck by the thought that Cezanne’s revolution began in still life, the field of art with the lowest esteem. When I was a young ad man, everyone wanted to work on beer, cars and jeans. But it’s difficult to make an impression on a category that is already considered cool and creative; that already attracts the attentions of the great and the good. The Planners that made their name in my time did so on the roads less travelled, on difficult brands in unfashionable sectors - detergent and dog food, soup, soap and financial services. The stone that the builders rejected can indeed become the cornerstone.

Cezanne died in 1906 at the age of 67. He had always been admired by his fellow artists. Degas, Gaugin and Monet; Pissarro, Caillebotte and Renoir all kept his work. And Picasso referred to him as ‘the father of us all.’

‘Cezanne cannot put touches of two colours onto a canvas without it being an achievement.’
Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Cezanne taught us to find truth in nature; to reflect on and celebrate sensation; to look and look again - because even if we cannot fully comprehend the world around us, we can at least enjoy our perception of it.

'We live in a rainbow of chaos.’

'I pick my friends like I pick my fruit.
My Granny told me that when I was only a youth.
I don't walk around trying to be what I'm not.
I don't waste my time trying to get what you got.
I work at pleasin’ me,
'Cause I can't please you.
And that's why I do what I do
My soul flies free like a willow tree.
Doo wee, doo wee, doo wee
And if you don't want to be down with me, you don't want to pick from my
Apple tree.’

Erykah Badu, ‘Appletree' (R Bradford / E Badu)

No. 394