Cézanne by Joachim Gasquet
"Cézanne" by Joachim Gasquet is a biographical memoir written in the early 20th century. It offers an intimate portrait of the painter Paul Cézanne, blending personal reminiscence with vivid evocations of Provence and reflections on art. The focus is on Cézanne’s character, friendships, and working habits, and on the tension between his romantic impulses and his rigorous pursuit of truth in painting. The opening of the book situates Cézanne’s birth and sensibility
in the landscape of Aix-en-Provence, especially the looming presence of Mont Sainte-Victoire, and contrasts the region’s classical calm with its harsher, stony gorges. It sketches his filial devotion, the Jas de Bouffan estate, and how rural scenes and “card players” shaped his motifs, then recalls his anguish when family relics were destroyed. It recounts school days with Zola and Baille, their long walks, river swims, and voracious reading, highlighting Cézanne’s extraordinary memory, prickly sensitivity, and early struggle between romantic imagination and classical restraint. Museum encounters (Granet, Puget, the Lenain “card players”) and studies from skulls frame his meditation on mortality, while attempts at law, youthful verse, and a deepening call to paint lead to conflict with his father and futile lessons with a local academic. Granted a meager allowance, he goes to Paris: Académie Suisse, the Louvre, and friendships (Emperaire, Villevieille, later Solari) feed his craft; admiration for Manet and the influence of Pissarro pull him toward working directly from nature. The narrative then follows his brief return to Aix (including the painted “Four Seasons” at the Jas) and a second Paris phase of exuberant, heavy impasto and restless searching, culminating in scenes of mounting doubt as he oscillates between open-air studies and feverish, visionary studio compositions. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Gasquet, Joachim, 1873-1921 |
|---|---|
| Artist | Cézanne, Paul, 1839-1906 |
| Title | Cézanne |
| Edition | Nouvelle édition. |
| Original Publication | Paris: Les Éditions Bernheim-Jeune, 1926. |
| Credits | Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.) |
| Language | French |
| LoC Class | ND: Fine Arts: Painting |
| Subject | Painters -- France -- Biography |
| Subject | Cézanne, Paul, 1839-1906 |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 78132 |
| Release Date | Mar 7, 2026 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 217 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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