Cézanne's Watercolors

Images

"Trees Forming an Arch"
Watercolor
c.1904-1906
Princeton University Art Museum

Images

"Path, Trees, and Walls"
Watercolor
c.1900-1904
Princeton University Art Museum

Images

"Undergrowth"
Watercolor
c.1900-1906
Princeton University Art Museum

Images

"Trees and Cistern in the Park of the Chateau Noir"
Watercolor
c. 1900-1902
Princeton University Art Museum

Images

"Still Life with Carafe, Bottle, and Fruit"
Watercolor
c.1906
Princeton University Art Museum

Images

"Monte Saint Victoire"
Watercolor
c. 1901-1906
Princeton University Art Museum

Images

"Forest Path"
Watercolor
c.1904-1906
Princeton University Art Museum

Images

"Chemin des Lauves: Turn in the Road"
Watercolor
c.1904
Princeton University Art Museum

Cézanne: Still Life with Carafe, Bottle, and Fruit

Still Life of Shapes: "Still Life with Carafe, Bottle, and Fruit

"Still Life with Carafe, Bottle, and Fruit" (c. 1906) is important to understanding Cézanne's developing path to cubism for two reasons: it is not just another forest scene so therefore it proves that Cézanne used these techniques in several forms of subject matter and it was not just an isolated experiment within the forest and also because it is known to be one of his last three watercolors, as well as paintings, ever. While very different than his landscapes, this watercolor still has very convincing connections to Cubism. It is so important since it is not a nature scene, Cezanne's passion, and yet there still exists an architectonic schematizaton, basic geometric forms, and a turn towards abstraction. Like his still lives before this, there is no distinct perspective. In fact, there are several of them and many varying viewpoints producing the feeling that objects are momentarily going to fall off the table while simultaneously seeing as though they are completely stationary. The idea of slowing down exists in this painting as well since everything is outlined and sketched over several times. It is difficult to discern at what we are looking or where the objects actually begin and end. The displacement and repetition also is reminiscent of the Cubist movement; the orange-like shape on the left side of the paper, the continuing grapes, the repeated bottom of the carafe. The idea behind this painting that so closely ties it to Cubism is that it was arranged by space and not by sight within the basic bounds of a geomtrisized scene based on shapes and lines.

Cézanne: Monte Saint Victoire

Geomtricization: "Monte Saint Victoire"

Cézanne's "Mt. Saint Victoire" paintings are pivotal to understanding Cézanne as an artist and his progressions and regressions throughout his life, including his path to Cubism. Mt. Saint Victoire is located in Cézanne's hometown in Aix-En- Provence. It notably became a fixture in his life, one of his obsessisions, considering he painted this subject in both oil and watercolor over thirty times. Thus, this watercolor of Mt. Saint Victoire is just another in a series but is also a definite depiction in Cézanne's progression to his geometric style that led to Cubism. While this is a nature scene, it is important because it is not another forest scene proving his Cubist tendencies carry over into other aspects of his work. His shift towards distortion and abstraction is clearly present considering the watercolor lacks a distinct form. We can clearly make out the mountain and its valley so therefore it is not completely abstract. However, those are in the form of a basic triangle and several indistinct forms in the foreground. Where exactly does the sky or valley begin? Like the forest scenes, there is a clear architectonic schematization of nature as the objects within nature are objectified into basic, geometric shapes. All across the watercolor there are several objects clearly morphed into cylinders and vertical lines, such as the beginnings of a house in the bottom right hand corner. The brush strokes have even been applied in block shapes. While this is not another forest scene, his turn to using an architectonic shematization and geometric forms exists in various watercolors like this scene of Mt. Saint Victoire.

Cézanne: Forest Path

Slowing Down: "Forest Path"

In "Forest Path" (c. 1904-1906), another of the watercolor forest series plays with the optical allusions that eventually culminate into the reason why Cubists manipulate and distort their images. While Cézanne in most of his paintings toys with changing viewpoints and depth perceptions, he creates a new way to interpret and view a painting. The whole form of the painting "resembles a web" based off a diagonal juxtaposition (Armstrong and Giles, 123). But within the "web" he creates "shifts in depth perception" leading to "adjustments of optical accommodation and binocular convergence." These "shifts" and "optical" allusions force our eyes to stop repeatedly and move our eyes back and forth across the watercolor attempting to discern exactly at what we are looking (Armstrong and Giles, 40). We slow down and we examine. It was Cézanne's intention to create this pause because it is only through this prolonged examination that we intensely study the patches of color, one on top of the other, the vitality of the strokes, and the constant movement within nature. It was this concept that led the Cubists into their type of manipulation and distortion. It was their intention as well to slow the view and have us study the painting until we understood the watercolor and the social commentary within the painting.

"Les Demoiselles D'Avignon," Cézanne, and Cubism

It is unknown exactly when Cubism began. Some say 1907, 1908, or 1909. The term, much like the name Impressionism, came from a critic, Louis Vauxcelles who described one of Georges Braque's paintings in 1908 as 'geometric schemeas and cubes," ("Cubism"). The two main contenders in regards to who created Cubism are Georges Braques and Pablo Picasso though on a broad basis Picasso is more associated with the creation. Cubism, with the help of Paul Cézannes work, became on of the first major movements in the 1900's. The basic concept if very similar to one of Cézanne's creations: using multiple viewpoints to create the "essence" of a three dimensional form. This way of painting made is capable to show several of an objects features concurrently ("Cubism"). One of the first paintings attricbuted to the beginnings of Cubism is "Les Demoiselles D'Avignon" by Pablo Picasso in 1907. The scene consists of five, naked prostitutes in a brothel, two of the women in seductive positions and two adorned with foreign masks. The women, however, look far from normal as they are crooked, jagged, pieced together with positions impossible for a human ("Les Demoiselles D'Avignon"). The paintings clearly relies on Cézanne's use of multiple viewpoints and showing the women at all different points such as the woman in the lower right corner whose body is facing away from us yet her face is looking at us. To understand anything that is going on, the viewer must stop and analyze the broken pieces to determine the various poess the women are taking and how it makes sense at all. The geomtricization of the objects, in this case women instead of the forest in Cézanne's works, is clearly present as the women are turned into cut out pices of triangles, diamonds, and squares with jagged edges. The distinct difference between the Cubists, especially this specific painting, and Cézanne is intention was to portray nature and the sentions provoked within nature whereas the Cubists aimed at providing a social commentary. Such as in "Les Demoiselles D'Avignon" it is suggested that the harsh treatment of the women and the objectification represents Picasso's fear of sexual diseases, a common fear among many in Paris during the early 1900's ("Les Demoiselles D'Avignon.)

Cézanne: The Artist behind the Paintings

Paul Cézanne was born on January 19, 1839 in Aix-en- Provence. Throughout his life he was known as timid and introverted, rarely trusting anybody. Besides his mother, he rarely had relationships with women. He attended school where he studied law, due to his father's wishes, but ultimately fell in love with art. He would turn to his art to relieve his constant stress and role as a "social misfit." It was his inability to control his introversion and his natural state of being withdrawn that led to his compulsive painting style. It was something that he could control. He was obsessive and throughout his life has a restricted spectrum of subject matter since he repeatedly returned to the same subject over and over. He dabbled with Impressionism, mostly due to his friend, Camille Pisarro and exhibited in the first and third Impressionism exhibits. But Impressionism just did not satisfy him clearly depicted when he once said "I want to make of Impressionism something solid and enduring, like the art in museums." He thus turned slightly from Impressionism, opposed to its singular use of aesthetic value, and created his own path- the one for which he would be most famous. This is the path discussed in my website. Because of his evolving style and thus the resulting movements of art, such as Fauvism and Cubism, Cézanne is seen as the "most important post-Impressionist painter," as well as the artist that "put an end to four centuries reign of imitativeness painting" (Harrison 151,158). He is coined as the father of modern art. A strong, yet fitting, role. He continued to produce a plethora of work, rarely signing nor dating his paintings, culminating with a decade of intense watercolors. Cézanne died on October 22, 1906 leaving behind hundreds of paintings that created the stepping stones for the art following his life. It would take twenty years for mostly anyone to recognize the significance of Cézanne's art but once it was realized, it is undeniable.

Novak Family

About the Author

Name: Norris Ann Patterson Novak

School:Princeton University

Where I Live:Baltimore, MD a.k.a Salty Balty

Birthdate: December (Friday) the 13th, 1985

Hobbies: Lacrosse, Photography, Reading, Watching Movies

Norris Ann Patterson Novak came to Princeton, the fall of 2004 graduating from Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore, MD in the spring of 2004. She currently plays sports and does not know what she wants to do with the rest of her life. Her first name is actually a double name, Norris Ann, but she rarely goes by it. Norris actually is her mother's maiden name. She is the youngest of three in the Novak family. She has an older brother, Matthew, that attends Vanderbilt and an older sister, Ginna, who is currently a teacher and director of social activities at a boarding school in Florida. Norris began her writing career as a young child when she wrote a story about how she was bitten by a squirrel consequently receiving seven rabbie shots. She has had no published work except for this website. She met Nicholas Cage when she was six years old while he was filming Guarding Tess at her grandmother's house in Baltimore. She has been out the country twice: once on an exchange program to France for two weeks in eighth grade and once this past Christmas break when her lacrosse team travelled to Australia to play the Australian national team.

Norris first became interested in Cézanne when she saw one of his "Monte Saint Victoire" paintings in the Princeton Art Museum. She further became interested when she learned that the museum actually had a collection of Cézanne's watercolors and thus chose to write on those watercolors since she was able to see them while they were not on display in the actual museum. Norris plans on continuing her studies of Cézanne of both his watercolors and other series.