What is the difference between a simply talented artist and a genius? It happens that a person from childhood amazes everyone with his artistic abilities, and those around him prophesy a brilliant future, but, growing up, he becomes only one of many. And it happens the other way around: no one sees anything remarkable in a child or young man, but after some time everyone suddenly begins to notice what he is doing great and brilliant. Cezanne Paul refers specifically to such artists.
Artist’s childhood
Biography of Paul Cezanne is interesting and unusual. However, can it be ordinary life of a brilliant artist? It all began at the end of 1839. It was then, on December 19, in the French town of Aix-en-Provence that a baby was born, who was given the name Paul. The father of the future artist - Louis Auguste - was a wealthy man. At first he traded felt hats, and then he began to slowly give money in growth and, quickly realizing the advantages of such a business, he opened his own banking business in the city.
Paul Cezanne's mother was a saleswoman from a hat store. She was a modest and uneducated woman, but she loved her son to the point of madness and she protected her father from the severe temper. Her only image has been preserved in the painting “Girl at the Piano”, in which Paul’s mother is sitting in the background with needlework in her hands.
Cezanne Sr.'s character was truly "not sugar." They did not like him in the city, as he was known as a cruel and very mean man. Cezanne Paul also did not love his father and was afraid of him. For many years he suffered greatly from his dependent position in the parental home. But we must admit that, despite the severity and severe nature, the father took good care of the education of the boy and gave his son to study in the most prestigious school of the city - Bourbon College.
Years at school and character formation
Paul Cezanne was a capable and diligent student. He did a great job with math and was very fond of writing essays. A special passion of the future artist was poetry. Cézanne Paul memorized almost all of Virgil and Homer. He had an excellent memory, and even after many years he could freely recite these poets by heart.
It is surprising that the boy didn’t not like school drawing lessons, but was afraid of them, although he felt a strong desire for art. At that time no one, including Paul himself, could even think that a real artist would someday come out of him. At school, his academic excellence was repeatedly marked with letters of commendation. The father hoped that his son would follow in his footsteps and become a continuation of the family business. He forced Paul to graduate from law school at a local university after graduation.
The difficult relationships in the family and internal contradictions did not have the best influence on the formation of the character of young Cezanne. He grew up withdrawn and unsociable, so he remained for life. People always annoyed the artist, all his life he avoided the hustle and bustle and found joy and comfort only in painting.
Friendship with Emil Zola
The only friend of Paul Cezanne for many years was Emil Zola. They met in the lower grades of the school, as they studied together. The children were brought together by one unpleasant incident: little Zola was constantly teased at school for being very lisping, once his classmates beat him, and Paul stood up for his classmate. This marked the beginning of their 40-year friendship.
Cézanne Paul greatly appreciated this relationship, as he had difficulty converging with people and, except for Zola, he had no friends. It is surprising that Emil Zola was very fond of drawing at school and so excelled in this discipline that he was predicted to be an artist. But Cezanne, on the contrary, succeeded most in literary work, and those around him thought that he would be a writer. But everything turned out the other way around.
After graduation, Emil goes to Paris and insistently calls Paul with him. But the young man does not dare to disobey the tyrannical father and remains in his hometown. But the friendship continued for a long time, until Emil Zola wrote a work entitled "Creativity", in the main character of which - a loser and a suicide - Cezanne recognized himself.
Painting training
That ended the school years! Young Cezanne, at the insistence of his father, is studying at the university, but at the same time he begins to attend painting classes at a local studio school and even equips his own art workshop in his father's estate. Art draws him more and more. He is striving with all his might for Paris, and finally his father, yielding to persistent requests and persuasions, lets him go to the capital.
Now Cezanne gets the opportunity to study the art of drawing and painting at the famous Suisse Academy. Paul often visits the Louvre, where he diligently copies the paintings of great artists: Rubens, Delacroix, Titian. The first independent works of Paul Cezanne are gloomy and romantic, permeated by the influence of the creativity of these painters. On the other hand, in the early paintings of Cezanne reflected his strong emotional experiences of that period.
The first steps in art
The young artist has a hard time in the capital, society does not accept him, considering this provincial too gloomy and uncouth. He leaves back to his father, tries to work in his office, but then returns to Paris again, because he feels that he can no longer live without painting. This period of throwing lasted for ten years and was accompanied by severe depression.
The first paintings that the artist exhibited in Paris salons, did not bring him any success. The public and critics did not accept his "strange", unusual view of this world. At this time, the only person who supported him was Emil Zola. Cezanne worked enormously, trying to comprehend the secrets of the craft, but success was yet to come.
Acquaintance with Camille Pissarro
Years passed, Paul Cezanne - an artist and a man - passed the first storm of passions, became calmer and more balanced. In his life, a momentous event takes place - an acquaintance with the famous impressionist Camille Pissarro. This artist gives Cezanne advice to make his palette brighter, teaches him the technique of separate brushstroke. This period of Cezanne's creativity is from 1872 to 1879. - can be called impressionistic.
The main genre of this time was landscape. Cezanne Paul and Pissarro often work together on the same motives, however, they use different means at the same time. Despite the strong influence of impressionism and Pissarro on his work, Cezanne did not become a complete adherent of this trend in painting.
He was alien to the desire of the Impressionists to show the momentary state of the world, its variability and fluctuation. He rather perceived the environment as something unshakable, subject to strict harmony. The geometry of space will never cease to play an important role for him.
Personal life of the artist
Paul Cezanne's biography would not be complete without a short story about his personal life. As already mentioned, Cezanne had few affections, he was a misanthrope, avoided people, new acquaintances and women. And yet in 1869 he met a girl to whom he was truly attached. Her name was Maria-Hortense Fique, she worked as a model and was 11 years younger than the artist. Cezanne married the girl and subsequently she served him as a model for more than forty paintings. In 1872, Hortense gave birth to a son Paul. And although the spouses were quite different people in their habits and perceptions of the world and for the most part lived separately (Cezanne - in his estate in Provence, and Hortense - in Paris), still this woman remained the only maestro in her life.
Cezanne paintings
Paul Cezanne, whose work left a deep mark in the hearts of his contemporaries, was a real hermit and a workaholic. He left behind more than 800 oil paintings. And this is not counting the many drawings and works made in the watercolor technique, which Paul Cezanne was especially fond of in the last creative period.
Here are the names of some of his most famous paintings: "The Bridge in the Forest" (1880), "Houses in Provence near Estacus" (1882), "The Sea at Estacus" (1885), "Portrait of Madame Cezanne" (1887) g.), "View of the Gardena" (1886), "Mountain of St. Victoria" (1890). All these and many other landscapes were painted by the great Paul Cezanne. Still lifes occupy a special place in his work. Once in his school years, having received a basket of apples from Emil Zol as a gift, he said the phrase: “I will conquer Paris with apples.” This exclamation of the child has become prophetic. After many years, his many magnificent still lifes with apples really conquered the capital of France.
The maestro worked in different genres. Along with landscapes and still lifes, he has many self-portraits, portraits and genre paintings, mostly painted in oil.
last years of life
In the last years of his life, the artist was sick with diabetes, but still worked hard and fruitfully. Only at the end of his creative and life journey did Cezanne achieve success, which he, however, did not seek. The painter was a real recluse, contemptuous of worldly fuss and lived, idolizing only holy art.
Many art historians believe that the work of this master of painting, his artistic discoveries and personality itself were so grandiose and large-scale that all this together had a huge impact on many subsequent generations of painters. Paul Cezanne, whose brief biography is set out in this article, passed away at the age of 67, in October 1906. Now his paintings are worth millions of dollars, and their value is growing rapidly every year. In conclusion, I want to say a few words about where you can see his work.
The works of Paul Cezanne in Russia
In various museums of our country there are many works of the French post-impressionist. In St. Petersburg, in the Hermitage, you can see his still lifes “Fruits”, “A Bouquet of Flowers in a Vase”, “Still Life with Drapery”, landscapes “Big Pine near Aix”, “Blue Landscape”, “Mountain of St. Victoria”. There you can see how Paul Cezanne looked - "Self-portrait in a casket", written by the artist between 1873-1875, is also in the Hermitage. In Moscow, in the Pushkin Museum, in a permanent exhibition are exhibited paintings of "Pierrot and Harlequin", "Bridge on the Marne in Kreitel", "Road in Pontoise", etc.