A ix-en-Provence — a vastly admired and untiringly visited southern French city reputed for its cultural events, such as classical music concerts, stage plays and art exhibitions — recently hosted an unusual event exclusively dedicated to the painter Paul Cezanne.
Looking at the magical charms of Cezanne’s works, with their mountainous landscapes surrounding Aix-en-Provence, visitors suddenly came to realise the fact that Cezanne was himself born in this very town in 1839, in a middle class family and, once he was a teenager, was sent to Paris for higher studies.
But, attracted by art and nothing else, the young man would soon encounter the painter Camille Pissarro. After learning Pissarro’s techniques, Cezanne would entirely abandon his studies, returning to his birthplace and living and working there the rest of his life. His attachment with the hilly countryside would bring him closer to peasants working on the farms, and practically all his paintings from here on would be exclusively dedicated to scenes under a blue and sunny sky.
Cezanne’s other fixation became the passing of time. He continued painting self-portraits and those of his wife, children, friends and other members of his family, in order to illustrate how people’s appearances change as the years roll by.
A city in the south of France paid tribute to its most influential artist
Cezanne’s fascination with hilly panoramas, lakes and forests also kept him close to nature all his life and, by the time he died in 1906 at the age of 67, he had finished more than 1,000 paintings and as many as 160 portraits.
Not setting aside their reputed artistic inventions, the organisers of Granet Museum in Aix-en-Provence spent considerable time, not to speak of money, to renovate the artist’s personal residence in Jas de Bouffan, not far from the main city, to hold this exhibition of Cezanne’s works.
More than just a country residence, the house remained a veritable laboratory for Cezanne, where he carried out his artistic inventions for more than 40 years. Viewing, on the walls of Cezanne’s two homes, his more than a 100 landscapes, drawings, watercolours, as well as portraits and self-portraits, is a stunning experience.
The retrospective showcased works illustrating just how much the house influenced Cezanne’s art. It presented Cezanne’s favourite themes: landscapes, self-portraits, the famous bathers and still-lifes in oil and watercolour. The exhibition’s masterpieces included the iconic The Four Seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, Bather and the Rocks, Game of Hide and Seek, Self-Portrait in Front of a Pink Background, The Card Players, Still Life with Cherries and Peaches and The Bathers.
Of course, other museums contributed to this event and a large number of works came from major French museums, notably Musée d’Orsay in Paris. Works were also borrowed from personal collections in London, Los Angeles, New York, Tokyo and many other cities all over the world.
‘Cezanne at Jas de Bouffan’ was on display at the Granet Museum and Jas de Bouffan in Aix-en-Provence from June 28-October 12, 2025
The writer is an art critic based in Paris. He can be reached at zafmasud@gmail.com
Published in Dawn, EOS, October 19th, 2025