In
this authoritative and up-to-date study of the painter widely regarded
as the father of modern art, Richard Verdi traces the evolution of
Cézanne's landscape, still-life and figure compositions, from
the turbulently romantic creations of his youth to the visionary masterpieces
of his final years. The background of the painter's fluctuating reputation
and strained relations with his parents, wife, and close friend Emile
Zola, is vividly evoked using excerpts from his own letters and from
contemporary accounts of the artist. Concerned both to master the
themes of the past, through his copying sessions in Louvre, and to
explore the eternal qualities of nature in the countryside of his
native Provence, Cézanne sought "to make of Impressionism something
solid and durable, like the art of the museums."
In
this authoritative and up-to-date study of the painter widely regarded
as the father of modern art, Richard Verdi traces the evolution of
Cézanne's landscape, still-life and figure compositions, from
the turbulently romantic creations of his youth to the visionary masterpieces
of his final years. The background of the painter's fluctuating reputation
and strained relations with his parents, wife, and close friend Emile
Zola, is vividly evoked using excerpts from his own letters and from
contemporary accounts of the artist. Concerned both to master the
themes of the past, through his copying sessions in Louvre, and to
explore the eternal qualities of nature in the countryside of his
native Provence, Cézanne sought "to make of Impressionism something
solid and durable, like the art of the museums."