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 earlier paintings, which were influenced by the Romantic period and by Impressionism. The artist's earliest works, created during the 1860's, showed the influence of Romanticism in that they were "often moody and violent, crude but powerful, and always inventive" (Schapiro, p. 10). With this style, Cezanne's art reflected the passion and "emotional tumult" of his early life (Schapiro, p. 22). During the 1870's and 1880's, Cezanne's paintings began to show the inf...