Landscape FWN 13 1962/4 46cm x 38
I’ve been having a look at Cezanne’s output through-out his life as an artist, totting up how many of the different genres he painted in each of his four phases of development (1860’s ballsy, 1870’s Impressionist, 1880’s constructive, 1890 onwards, his late mature style) and bits of it surprised me: Cezanne did 50 landscapes in the 1860’s compared with 31 in the 70’s, before he realised how good his landscapes could be - doing lots thereafter. Similarly, only in reverse, Cezanne did 90 odd “History” paintings in the 1860’s and 70’s, but, (if you exclude the mardi gras, alabaster statue and card-players – which are not really what we would describe as “History paintings”), their production declines to 20 over the final 25 years of his life. “History paintings”, those with a ‘moral’ tale to tell have had their day by the end of the century; people were beginning to be responsible for their own decisions, and not rely on church or class. And Landscape painting too was no longer about creating background images of the rich and famous in their country houses; now more than ever being crowded into the city slums, ordinary people were beginning to appreciate and long for the countryside. And artists were beginning to paint, not for the rich and famous.
This particular landscape is pretty early in Cezanne’s artistic career, and still includes working with the old palette knife (he just couldn’t resist it!) but predominantly brush. Cezanne delighted in the countryside of Provence from an early age: he explored it as a youngster with his friends, he unearthed it’s geology in quarries as a teenager, he swam in lake and dam, he BBQ’d beans, potatoes and lamb, he journeyed on tracks for miles, he studied the undergrown in shade and light, he sat still in awe of mountain and plain, he painted on long sunny days, and in wet windy ways, often from six at the dawn till the sun had gone down. He was at home in the open air of Provence.
Delacroix, one of Cezanne’s favourite painters, was said to have been passionately in love with passion: his landscapes were full of emotion, exoticism, the sublime, lush paintings with agitated brushstrokes, and pulsating in colour. Ingres, who Cezanne was not impressed with, painted impeccable paintings, textured, finished, and complete, imitating real life precisely. What was a young Cezanne trying to do with landscape painting? Was it a choice between passion and representation, between colour and line? Or would he discover something deeper yet?
“The earth is our origin and destination. The ancient rhythms of the earth have insinuated themselves into the rhythms of the human heart. The earth is not outside us; it is within: the clay from where the tree of the body grows. When we emerge from our offices, rooms and houses, we enter our natural element. We are children of the earth: people to whom the outdoors is home. Nothing can separate us from the vigour and vibrancy of this inheritance. In contrast to our frenetic, saturated lives, the earth offers a calming stillness. Movement and growth in nature takes time. The patience of nature enjoys the ease of trust and hope. There is something in our clay nature that needs to continually experience this ancient, outer ease of the world. It helps us remember who we are and why we are here.” John O’Donohue, Beauty