Of course, his early mountain paintings do not exhibit the color modeling that has created such confusion amongst scholars because these paintings were done while Cézanne was spending the majority of his time painting in and around the Jas de Bouffan (Coutagne, 86). The open trimmed spaces of the estate’s gardens were conducive to the traditional method of chiaroscuro modeling, so the paintings he made in that area, like Chestnut Trees and Farm at the Jas de Bouffan (c. 1885), exemplify that older style of blending. The large open spaces of Jas de Bouffan allow light to diffuse and colors to blend as can be seen again in Chestnut Trees and Farm at the Jas de Bouffan Chestnut Trees (c. 1885). If we look at the lawn in this painting, we see a smooth transition of yellows and greens as the broad area of light in the center does not force the viewer or painter to concentrate on specific area f color. In these types of paintings at Jas de Bouffan, Coutagne also notes the “tremendous spatial breadth…even when the view is restricted by framing” (Coutagne, 86). That “spatial breadth” that Coutagne is talking about can be seen in the large, open space created by the trees neatly framing the large lawn in Chestnut Trees and Farm at the Jas de Bouffan (c. 1885).
The light setting created by the gardens of Jas de Bouffan translates into the early mountain series in the way in which the colors on the mountain face as well as the countryside are traditionally applied and blended just as the yellows and greens melded in the lawn of Chestnut Trees and Farm at the Jas de Bouffan Chestnut Trees (c. 1885). If we look first at Mount Saint-Victoire (Barnes Foundation), we see a typical example of the early style. The peak of the mountain shows a blending of orange, yellow, blue and white tone within an extremely small area. There is no discernible boundary or line between the separate colors, which are, in fact, not even separate. Like the paintings done at Jas de Bouffan, Cézanne has not been forced to concentrate on a confined space; broad lighting allows him to blend colors. It takes close study and some time to realize that there is more than one color in that space. If we look at the countryside of the same painting, we again see the same type of blending in both the fields as well as the house façades. Again, the colors are shaded into each other. They are blended, amorphous. Without a sharp shape, like a rectangle or triangle, the colors cannot stand on their own power; instead, they blend into their neighbor.
Similar to the Mount Saint-Victoire (Barnes Foundation) (1885-1895), Mount Saint-Victoire (Hermitage, St. Petersburg) (1897-1898), exhibits the same type of chiaroscuro blending throughout the painting because Cézanne has not had the experience of a splotchy type lighting scene. Although there are some signs of polarized brushstrokes, which can look like blocks of color in the foreground countryside, these series of vertical lines are not all the same color within one stripe. They actually transform from one shade of a color to another. As a result, there is still a sense of blending in these shapes. Again, looking at the mountain face, it exemplifies a technique characterized by blending. In a single confined square on the left mountain face, the colors transition smoothly from purple to brown to light blue and then back to purple without a single definable border between those colors. The mountain face also exhibits the same amorphous color shapes as the previous example. It is interesting to note that this is the same type of amorphous blending seen in Chestnut Trees and Farm at Jas de Bouffan (c. 1885). Something would have to happen to Cézanne that would force him to concentrate on very specific shapes or else he would keep painting in this old method for the rest of his life. Cézanne needed a change in lighting.
Cézanne, Paul. Chestnut Trees and Farm at the Jas de Bouffan, c. 1885, oil on canvas. Private Collection, location unknown.
Cézanne, Paul. Mount Saint-Victoire, c. 1885-1895, oil on canvas. Barnes Foundation, Merion, PA.
Cézanne, Paul. Mount Saint-Victoire, c. 1897-1898, oil on canvas. The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia.