Painting Collection


Paul Cézanne

Houses and Fir Trees

 

(1839—1906)
Houses and Fir Trees
c. 1881
oil on canvas
18 1/2 x 21 3/4 inches
 

Paul Cézanne started his career painting figures and still lifes in the studio. However, by the 1870s, the French artist began working en plein air in the French countryside, inspired by friend and Impressionist artist Camille Pissarro, whom he often worked beside. In Houses and Fir Trees, painted around 1881, Cézanne captures a quiet village scene with his distinctive style of painting, constructing his composition with a complex arrangement of dense, parallel strokes of color. These building blocks of color flatten and abstract the surface while the view from the road draws us deeper into the work. Cézanne was deeply interested in experimenting with the space within the picture, so it comes as no surprise that he was a source of inspiration for many modernist artists that followed him. Picasso, for one, referred to Cézanne as "the father of us all".


 

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