task 2, 7, 8 Cezanne

(b. Jan. 19, 1839, Aix-en-Provence, Fr.--d. Oct. 22, 1906, Aix-en-Provence)

Cezannes' early work was very dark - other contemporary artists considered him very strange and avoided him; until one friend took him to his country home. He started to brighten his work and paint landscapes using a style very different form the dark one he had been using before - the colours were bright, bold, as if the subjects were permanently in the sun. His later, more colourful work has this strangely bright quality, the soft edges and the strange seemingly all round view points. His influence of the Cubists was based on how he worked - reducing much of the objects he painted to their basic shape - circles, squares triangles etc before filling them out to the actual object.

The painting may suggest the presence of death in life. The skull seems to be leering over the fruit, as if jealous of their life, or waiting for them to join it, at the same time the layout of the fruit also seems to be more like they're on the offensive. The lighting seems to contradict all of this, with its bright, yellowy colour - suggesting happiness and the height of life, rather than death constantly hanging over your shoulder, or having to fight it. 

"Paul Cézanne was born on January 19, 1839, in Aix-en-Provence, France. While in school, he enrolled in the free drawing academy in Aix, which he attended intermittently for several years. In 1858, he graduated from the Collège Bourbon, where he had become an intimate friend of his fellow student Emile Zola. Cézanne entered the law school of the University of Aix in 1859 to placate his father but abandoned his studies to join Zola in Paris in 1861. For the next twenty years, Cézanne divided his time between the Midi and Paris. In the capital, he briefly attended the Atelier Suisse with Camille Pissarro, whose art later came to influence his own. In 1862, Cézanne began long friendships with Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. His paintings were included in the 1863 Salon des Refusés, which displayed works not accepted by the jury of the official Paris Salon. The Salon itself rejected Cézanne’s submissions each year from 1864 to 1869.

"In 1870, following the declaration of the Franco-Prussian War, Cézanne left Paris for Aix-en-Provence and then nearby L’Estaque, where he continued to paint. He made the first of several visits to Pontoise in 1872; there, he worked alongside Pissarro. He participated in the first Impressionist exhibition of 1874. From 1876 to 1879, his works were again rejected for the Salon. Cézanne showed again with the Impressionists in 1877 in their third exhibition. At that time, Georges Rivière was one of the few critics to support his art. In 1882, the Salon accepted his work for the first and only time. Beginning in 1883, Cézanne resided in the South of France, returning to Paris occasionally.

"In 1890, Cézanne exhibited with the group Les Vingt in Brussels and spent five months in Switzerland. He traveled to Giverny in 1894 to visit Monet, who introduced him to Auguste Rodin and the critic Gustave Geffroy. Cézanne’s first solo show was held at Ambroise Vollard’s gallery in Paris in 1895. From this time, he received increasing recognition. In 1899, he participated in the Salon des Indépendants in Paris for the first time. The following year, he took part in the Centennial Exhibition in Paris. In 1903, the Berlin and Vienna Secessions included Cézanne’s work, and in 1904 he exhibited at the Salon d’Automne, Paris. That same year, he was given a solo exhibition at the Galerie Cassirer, Berlin. Cézanne died on October 22, 1906, in Aix-en-Provence."

http://www.paulcezanne.com/bio.shtml

"Pissarro's influence was important in Cezanne's artistic development. His palette lightened somewhat and he remained throughout his career devoted to the practice of painting directly from nature. However Cezanne reacted against the lack of structure in the Impressionist paintings and said that he intended to make Impressionism into "something solid and durable, like the art of the museums". He did indeed move decisively beyond Impressionism and is placed alongside the Post-Impressionist artists Seurat, Van Gogh and Gauguin.
For many years still-lifes and landscapes were Cezanne's preoccupation. Completing more than 200 still-life compostions in his lifetime, Cezanne wanted to 'conquer Paris with an apple', and become famous for his still life paintings. 'Apples and Oranges' is one of his most well known still-life compositions. Applying the same methodical analysis to these works as he did with his landscapes Cezanne was concerned with recording minute variations in tone and colour observed over long periods as well as the forms from empirical geometry he considered the most frequent in nature - the 'cylinder, sphere and the cone'."

http://www.theartgallery.com.au/cezanne.html