Cezanne boasted that his paintings would send the art world up the wall, with rage and despair, but not before he felt their wrath first! Cezanne applied to be admitted as a student of the prestigious Beaux-Arts – twice, and was twice rejected, much to his anger at the time! But I think it gave him the impetus to be independent, and think outside the box. He ended up at the Academie Suisse, where in those formative years, he met some of his closest friends: Armand Guillaumin, Antoine Guillemet, Franscisco Oller, and the older and radically wild anarchist, Camille Pissarro. Here they are in this photo, Cezanne with arms folded, Pissarro looking like Abraham with a hat, off on a painting expedition. Pissarro’s influence on Cezanne was deep and far-reaching – in technique, in application, in work-rate, in vowing to change the world – in so many things; but fundamentally, I am sure, Pissarro beheld Cezanne’s soul; later, Cezanne would say: “As for old Pissarro, he was a father to me. He was a man you could turn to for advice; he was something like God”.
What happens when your soul begins
to awaken your eyes and your heart
and each cell of your body
to the great journey of love?
First, there is wonderful laughter
and probably precious tears;
and a thousand sweet promises
and those heroic vows
no-one can ever keep.
But still, God is delighted
and amused
that you once tried to be a saint!
What happens when your soul begins
to awake in this world
to our deep yearning
to love and follow the beloved?
Oh! – the beloved
simply sends you
one of her wonderful, wild companions!
Adapted from Hafiz.