1878 (ca.), Paul Cezanne, Landscape in the West of Aix-en-Provence -- Wallraf-Richartz Museum (Cologne)
From the museum label: For Cézanne, this landscape was a piece of home. The strong colours reproduce the Mediterranean light one associates with Provence. Clearly defined as the forms are, precisely demarcated as the colour areas appear at first to be, the play of light and shade generated by the loose brushstrokes is yet alive with motion. The air seems everywhere to be shimmering. The painting represents a condensation of everything that we associate with the great master as the founder of Modernism: his confrontation with the Impressionist painting technique, combined with a defined pictorial structure. The veritable dissection of the landscape. into geometric shapes, of which we have a hint here, is a phenomenon that points ahead to Cubism.
1878 (ca.), Paul Cezanne, Landscape in the West of Aix-en-Provence -- Wallraf-Richartz Museum (Cologne)
From the museum label: For Cézanne, this landscape was a piece of home. The strong colours reproduce the Mediterranean light one associates with Provence. Clearly defined as the forms are, precisely demarcated as the colour areas appear at first to be, the play of light and shade generated by the loose brushstrokes is yet alive with motion. The air seems everywhere to be shimmering. The painting represents a condensation of everything that we associate with the great master as the founder of Modernism: his confrontation with the Impressionist painting technique, combined with a defined pictorial structure. The veritable dissection of the landscape. into geometric shapes, of which we have a hint here, is a phenomenon that points ahead to Cubism.