Paul Cézanne, Pommes et oranges, 1899

Paris, Musée d'Orsay

This image, via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paul_Cezanne_Apples_and_Oranges.jpg

In 1861, a shy young man from Aix-en-Provence made his way to Paris, in order to learn how to become a painter. He visited the Louvre, and admired the Old Masters – their technique, structure, and timelessness. He also discovered a group of discontented artists working in the city, who were grappling with the role of the artist in a modern world - striving to see nature fresh and clear, free from the straitjacket of academic tradition.

The young man was Paul Cezanne. He never forgot the Old Masters in the museum, and for a while, he worked and exhibited with the young radicals, who were soon to be known as the Impressionists.

Then he went home, scarcely leaving Provence for the rest of his life. As far as the Paris art world was concerned, he had ceased to exist. But he had not ceased to work. Alone in the deep south, he found out what it meant to be an artist, and in so doing, created paintings that would amaze the world. Shortly before his death, a new generation of painters began to discover his work and to call him Master. Picasso and Matisse both hailed him as the Father of Modern Art.

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