1897, Paul Cezanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire Seen from the Bibemus Quarry -- Baltimore Museum of Art
From the museum label: In the late 1870s, Cézanne began his extensive explorations of Mont Sainte-Victoire near Aix with a series of studies and oils which depict the mountain rising above the immense valley of the Arc River. Almost twenty years later he painted the site from the deserted Bibémus quarry near the city. In this dramatic work from around 1897, complex rock formations and the canyon below dominate the foreground, while the distinctive silhouette of the mountain looms large in the distance. Of all of the artist's Mont Sainte-Victoire landscapes, this is among the most compact, the quarry seeming to abut the very base of the imposing peak. The painting appears to have been produced in intense summer light, when the deep orange of the cliffs contrasts greatly with the dark green of the trees and the purple-blue sky. During the last four years of his life, Cézanne returned to the mountain for the last time, producing a series of views from the hills near his studio at Les Lauves above Aix.
1897, Paul Cezanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire Seen from the Bibemus Quarry -- Baltimore Museum of Art
From the museum label: In the late 1870s, Cézanne began his extensive explorations of Mont Sainte-Victoire near Aix with a series of studies and oils which depict the mountain rising above the immense valley of the Arc River. Almost twenty years later he painted the site from the deserted Bibémus quarry near the city. In this dramatic work from around 1897, complex rock formations and the canyon below dominate the foreground, while the distinctive silhouette of the mountain looms large in the distance. Of all of the artist's Mont Sainte-Victoire landscapes, this is among the most compact, the quarry seeming to abut the very base of the imposing peak. The painting appears to have been produced in intense summer light, when the deep orange of the cliffs contrasts greatly with the dark green of the trees and the purple-blue sky. During the last four years of his life, Cézanne returned to the mountain for the last time, producing a series of views from the hills near his studio at Les Lauves above Aix.