The Great Pine and Red Earth FWN 274 1890/95 79 cm x 91 The Hermitage Museum
Walter Feilchenfeldt, Jayne Warman, and David Nash, place this painting at FWN 274
firmly in amongst Cezanne’s landscapes in their catalogue raisonné.
this is a portrait
of our fractal world
of never-ending patterns
self-similar in different scales
each part a whole
each whole a part
simplicity and complexity
many and one
the harmony of chaos
our of this is a portrait this is a portrait this is a portrait of our
of our fractal world
of never-ending patterns
self-similar in different scales
each part a whole
each whole a part
simplicity and complexity
many and one
the harmony of chaos
this is a portrait this is a portrait this is a portrait this is a portrait
this is a portrait as much as a still-life. that which is fundamental (for example: oil paint, paint brush and canvass) is necessary for that which is significant (for example: the completion of the painting), but it is not sufficient. that which is significant depends on that which is fundamental but is more than the sum of its fundamental parts.
this is a portrait as much as a landscape. that which is significant in our world includes and transcends that which is fundamental: from strings to quarks, to subatomic particles, to molecules to cells, and all the way up to plant biochemistry, to fish neural networks, to the reptilian brain stem, the paleomammalian limbic system, the neocortex, the triune brain and to the ‘Tree of Life’ itself.
this is a portrait as much as a human form. all that which exists, is also becoming; unfolding in meaning and shared in culture; the memes of history stored in the great harvest warehouses of our collective consciousness; our souls stirred by deep yearning.
this is a portrait as much as an historical allegory. all that which in the spiral dynamics of evolutionary and ecological systems is self-sustaining and self-organizing, patterning and whole.
You guessed it - The Great Pine and Red Earth is one of my favourites!
I do hope you enjoy these blogs on the mature phase of Paul Cezanne’s work.
that which was said to the rose that makes it open
is being said to me here in my chest.
that which was told to the cypress that makes it strong and straight,
that which was whispered to the jasmine so it is what it is,
that which made sugarcane sweet,
that which was said to the inhabitants of the town of Chigil in
Turkestan that makes them so handsome,
that which makes the pomegranate flower blush like a human face,
that is being said to me now.
I blush.
that which gave eloquence to language, it’s happening here.
the great warehouse doors open:
I fill,
with gratitude,
chewing a piece of sugarcane,
in love with the One
to whom every ‘that which’ belongs!
Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, جلالالدین محمد رومی 1207 - 1273