
Paul CézanneFrankreich, 1839–1906Darf man es sehen?
Öffentlich ausgestellt. Wer dafür bürgt, steht unten.
Many artists of the twentieth century credited Cézanne with revolutionizing painting through his unique style and complex manipulation of perspective, both of which are exemplified in this work. Executed in his hallmark short, small groups of brushstrokes, this scene features an interior in which three-dimensional consistency has been destroyed. This play of impossibility is epitomized in the tablecloth, of which the scholar Meyer Schapiro wrote, “It is like a mountain, a rocky creviced mass, or like some human figure, twisting and turning, with an inner balance of directions.”
Of the many still lifes Cézanne painted, he only repeated the same composition twice. This work is a cropped variation of a canvas now in Munich, showing less of the wallpaper on the left and the tablecloth on the right. Cézanne began both paintings by drawing the composition on the canvas, indicating that the arrangement of the scene was the result of careful and deliberate consideration.
Harvard Art Museums
March 1886
Zola's Novel "The Masterpiece" and the Crisis of a Friendship
Zola published "The Masterpiece" (L'Œuvre), a novel about a failed painter, Claude Lantier, in whom Cézanne recognized himself. It was long believed that the friendship ended forever, but a rediscovered letter of 1887 shows that relations continued for some time.
28. April 1886
Married: Marie-Hortense Fiquet
28 April 1886
Marriage to Hortense Fiquet
He married Hortense Fiquet in Aix in the presence of his parents. The marriage was concluded not out of love but to secure the rights of their fourteen-year-old son Paul as a legitimate heir.
October 1886
Death of His Father and Inheritance
After the death of Louis-Auguste, Cézanne, together with his mother and sisters, inherited his fortune, including the Jas de Bouffan; the artist's financial situation eased considerably ("he left me an income of 25,000 francs").
1888–1890 · Wohnort
quai d'Anjou
1890
Onset of Diabetes
Cézanne developed diabetes; the illness further complicated his relations with those around him.