Paul Cezanne's Style

Paul Cezanne's individualistic style had a strong influence on both the artists of his own time and those who came after him. As noted by Reff, almost every painter of the modern period found in Cezanne "a source of instruction as well as inspiration" (p. 13). Cezanne's style of painting was unique for its time because he used brushstrokes of pure color to break objects down into their fundamental shapes. According to Schapiro, Cezanne's painting style was based on a careful observation of reality and a sense of detachment from the subject matter. This detachment can be seen, for example, in Cezanne's landscapes, which often depict inaccesible scenes blocked by trees or rocks in the foreground (p. 14). It is also evident in his still life paintings, in which "proximate things, like the distant landscape, exist for Cezanne as something to be contemplated rather than used" (Schapiro, p. 15). Cezanne's sense of detachment can even be seen in his later portraits, where the expressionless features and stiff postures of the figures make it seem "as if the painter has no access to the interior world of the sitter, but can only see him from outside" (Schapiro, p. 15).

The works of Cezanne's later period (from 1895 to his death in 1906) were particularly important in the development of his unique artistic style (Reff, p. 13). In those works, Cezanne began to depict the basic shapes of nature through gradations in color. This approach to style contrasts that of Cezanne's ear

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(1885-1890). The carafe which forms the central image of this painting is "unrealistically" swollen on one side and contracted on the other, "in order to satisfy the aesthetic requirements of the pattern" (Mack, 1936, p. 310). Cezanne's theories about art were influenced by the ideas of the French painter Gustave Courbet, who died in 1877. Like Cezanne, Courbet was less concerned with the accurate depiction of reality than he was with the representation of nature "according to his sensations of color" (Schapiro, p. 24). The detachment of Cezanne's mature style was also influenced by Courbet's conception of "pure painting," which was dedicated "to the visual as a complete world grasped directly as a structure of tones, without intervention of ideas or feelings about the represented objects" (Schapiro, p. 24). Cezanne was also influenced by other prominent artists of his time. For example, his early work followed the stylistic ideas of the Romantic artist Eugene Delacroix. In particular, Cezanne's early chaotic and rebellious style was influenced by Delacroix's status as "a heroic model of revolt in art" (Schapiro, p. 22). In the 1870's, Cezanne fell under the influence of the Impressionist Camille Pissarro. This artist

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