Paul Cézanne — Introduction: The Myth of Cézanne

1. 1. Cézanne's large Bathers paintings were conceived as a testing ground for his theories and remained incomplete at his death.
2. 2. Cézanne is regarded as the father of modern painting, but his contemporaries found his work deeply puzzling and contested.
3. 3. Cézanne distrusted biographers and insisted that art should develop through contact with nature, not through theories or museum study.
4. 4. Cézanne's later art was caught between asserting individualism and seeking connection to the cultural traditions of Provence.
5. 5. Émile Zola's novel L'Oeuvre, featuring a failed painter modeled partly on Cézanne, profoundly shaped public perception of the artist.
6. 6. Cézanne identified with Balzac's fictional painter Frenhofer, saying 'I am Frenhofer' when asked about Le Chef-d'oeuvre inconnu.
7. 7. Cézanne's female bathers are marked by ambiguous sexuality, with bodies that seem formless or rigid and phallic shapes in the landscape.
8. 8. Dealer Ambroise Vollard capitalized on Cézanne's enigmatic reputation, marketing his exhibitions by word of mouth to create intrigue.
9. 9. Cézanne's bathers were seen by contemporaries as expressing deep-seated anxiety about women and sexuality, a theme central to his legend.