1880 (ca.), Paul Cezanne, Road leading to the lake -- Kroller-Muller Museum (Otterlo)
From the museum label: At first glance, this seems like a classical landscape, with a winding dirt road that leads through the tall trees, past a field with corn sheaths to a lake. But on closer inspection it becomes apparent that the painting is composed of vigorous horizontal and vertical elements and surfaces. This largely counteracts the traditional perspective, with lines leading to the background and colours gradually fading. The depth effect of the road is interrupted by the horizontal lines of the short bushes, the edge of the water and hills behind. The buildings are placed in the landscape like flat boxes. All this focuses attention on the 'construction' of the painting: the forms and surfaces, each with its own colour, applied with forceful, parallel brushstrokes. With this working method, Cézanne was a major influence on modern painting and he set out in a direction that would eventually lead to abstraction.
1880 (ca.), Paul Cezanne, Road leading to the lake -- Kroller-Muller Museum (Otterlo)
From the museum label: At first glance, this seems like a classical landscape, with a winding dirt road that leads through the tall trees, past a field with corn sheaths to a lake. But on closer inspection it becomes apparent that the painting is composed of vigorous horizontal and vertical elements and surfaces. This largely counteracts the traditional perspective, with lines leading to the background and colours gradually fading. The depth effect of the road is interrupted by the horizontal lines of the short bushes, the edge of the water and hills behind. The buildings are placed in the landscape like flat boxes. All this focuses attention on the 'construction' of the painting: the forms and surfaces, each with its own colour, applied with forceful, parallel brushstrokes. With this working method, Cézanne was a major influence on modern painting and he set out in a direction that would eventually lead to abstraction.