Paul Cézanne

Paintings of Paul Cézanne

Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) was a seminal French Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations for the transition from 19th-century Impressionism to 20th-century Cubism and modern abstraction. Both Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso famously referred to him as "the father of us all."

Cézanne sought to "treat nature by means of the cylinder, the sphere, and the cone," simplifying complex landscapes, portraits, and still lifes into underlying structural forms.

Rather than capturing fleeting light like the Impressionists, he used deliberate, block-like patches of color to build solid, architectural compositions.

He is best remembered for his series depicting Mont Sainte-Victoire, carefully arranged still lifes with apples, and The Card Players.