House in Provence, near Gardanne FWN 227 1886-90 65.5 cm x 81.3 Indianapolis
This house in Provence for some reason reminds me of the poem by Walter de la Mare called ‘The Listeners’, where a guy returns, as promised, for an undisclosed meeting: but there is no-one there, only ‘the listeners’. “Tell them I came” he shouts “that I kept my word”, as he turns and leaves the house to ride away and allow the silence to surge softly back again. I think it’s because the house is not abandoned, but ‘closed up’, with withered remnants of an orchard, and foreboding dark mountain, somehow waiting, somehow dry and forlorn, all looking to the right, for something we know not what….
After the Revolution, the laws on inheritance were standardized in France such that all wealth left without a will after the settlement of debts was simply automatically divided up between the children. (‘sons’ is probably more accurate, though this was changing: in 1891, a law was passed guaranteeing the surviving spouse’s use (though not necessarily ownership) of a quarter of the decedent’s property.) During the last quarter of the nineteen century, the rural population of France was rapidly declining. In Provence, the equal distribution of property to the offspring resulted in the separation of land from the natural springs that were their indispensable sources of water. (cf Tate Cezanne Exhibition catalogue, p.301). As the importance of the agricultural sector diminished, farms became more and more unprofitable.
Very often in landscapes, Cezanne constructs the painting so that the eye is drawn in on the foreground on the left, then directed around the top of the painting and back down the righthand side to the viewer: realizing the whole with a certain roundedness. Here however, our vision is directed in a gentle ascent to an unknown point in the midground on the right: the line of withered fruit trees in front of the house, the house itself even, and the ridges of the mountain, all direct our focus to that unseen and mysterious location, beyond the picture frame.
Cezanne’s father had passed away in 1886, leaving his three children as equal beneficiaries in his will. Cezanne, his mother and two sisters continued to live in their family home; but Rose, who had married in 1881, and had two children, and hopes of a larger family, soon bought a property at Bellevue (actually it was the property next door, Montbriand – but that’s another story). It was around Bellevue that Cezanne would focus his landscapes when he and his small family left Gardanne, and returned to live in the family home of Jas de Bouffan. Cezanne’s mother and sister Marie continued to live in the family home for most of their lives, but on the death of Cezanne’s mother in 1897, the two sisters and husband -in-law cajoled Cezanne to sell and divide the proceeds.
The last human remains, the house itself, is being swallowed back into the earth from whence it came. The grassed earth in front is now up against the front wall, and pushing on into the step of the front door. The bushy trees, all of which and the shrubbery, are in constructive brushstroke style; the one at the front pulls the window out of alignment and begins to enfold it, while the five bushes at the back of the house begin to envelop the roof, the last one almost indistinguishable from the chimney. The last vestiges of humanity are slowly disappearing.
“We find that in a country like France the annual flow of inheritance was about 20–25% of national income between 1820 and 1910, down to less than 5% in 1950, and back up to about 15% by 2010. A simple theoretical model of wealth accumulation, growth, and inheritance can fully account for the observed U-shaped pattern and levels. Contrary to a widespread view, modern economic growth did not kill (the importance of) inheritance.” On the Long-Run Evolution of Inheritance: France 1820–2010, Thomas Piketty.
It’s good to recognize the difference between wealth and income: two people may have the same annual income, one generated from working, and the other – income from wealth - generated from investment: wealth can generate income and therein lies the inequality of opportunity. “Wealth grows and becomes self-reinforcing. Income does not. Inheritance continues to be a major component of wealth, wealth begets more power, which may ultimately beget more wealth. Overall, this means that, in the absence of taxation, wealth inequality will tend to increase.” OECD. “The world’s billionaires ‘did extremely well’ during the coronavirus pandemic, growing their already-huge fortunes to a record high of $10.2tn (£7.8tn)” The Guardian. The silent few contribute little but are merely listeners.
Unfettered wealth causes the cohesion of society to slip slowly away
And he felt in his heart their strangeness,
Their stillness answering his cry,
While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,
’Neath the starred and leafy sky;
For he suddenly smote on the door, even
Louder, and lifted his head:—
‘Tell them I came, and no one answered,
That I kept my word,’ he said.
Never the least stir made the listeners,
Though every word he spake
Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house
From the one man left awoke:
Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,
And the sound of iron on stone,
And how the silence surged softly backward,
When the plunging hoofs were gone
