Mont Sainte Victoire

Mont Sainte Victoire. Paul Cézanne. 1902–1904 C.E. Oil on canvas.

• Impressionist paintings usually done on-site, rapidly, in the moment
• Artist died two years after it was completed; feels unfinished; trees half formed, white canvas visible; mountain seems to be in the process of forming 
• We can see clouds, trees, skies, farmland, mountains; if we look closely, they all fall apart.
• Creates a sense of optical movement and change. Does not create believable space; defies high finish, brush strokes very much visible. 
• Intimacy; man has seen the mountain so many times. 
• Geometric shapes, artist important figure in Cubism; denies illusionism present in Western painting beginning in the Renaissance. 
• Cezanne treats every part of the canvas the same way; delineates distance by color; brings one color into another; does not capture transitory effect of light and atmosphere; no confrontation, permanence. 
• It can be difficult to estimate, by eye, just how far away a mountain lies. A peak can dominate a landscape and command our attention. 
• Has a commanding presence over the country around it and, in particular, over Aix-en-Provence, the hometown of Paul Cézanne. 
• Thanks to his many oil paintings and watercolors of the mountain, the painter has become indelibly associated with it. Cézanne would return to the motif of Mont Sainte-Victoire throughout the rest of his career, resulting in an incredibly varied series of works.
• They show the mountain from many different points of view and often in relationship to a constantly changing cast of other elements. 
• Cézanne divides his composition into three roughly equal horizontal sections; our viewpoint is elevated. Closest to us lies a band of foliage and houses; next, rough patches of yellow ochre, emerald, and viridian green suggest the patchwork of an expansive plain and extend the foreground’s color scheme into the middleground; and above, in contrasting blues, violets and greys, we see the “craggy mountain” surrounded by sky.
• Cézanne evokes a deep, panoramic scene and the atmosphere that fills and unifies this space. The mountainous landscape is both within our reach, yet far away.