Explore the Late period paintings of this artwork.
Cézanne's Late Period ran from about 1895 until his death in 1906, but most of his works of Mont Sainte-Victoire came from the time after Cézanne bought property just north of Aix in 1902. From 1902-1906, Cézanne painted Mont Sainte-Victoire eleven times in oil paint, and many more in watercolor. This period was defined by more saturated colors, less stable compositions, and a more clear division of forms into smaller parts, as dictated by Cézanne's thick brushstrokes. He created his forms with discrete patches of intense color, developing his compositions by considering the elements of the paintings as geometric shapes imbued with color. The structure constructed from these shapes became stronger and then more implied, in order to emphasize emotional intensity. The subject matter was almost unrecognizable within the brushstrokes, pointing the way toward abstraction. Cézanne's analytical approach to these unpopulated landscapes caused the paintings to seem distanced from humanity.In the paintings Cézanne did from this period, the mountain was often shown in dramatic profile, the peak rising over the surrounding plain, which spread out in a patchwork of farm buildings, trees, and fields. They are imbued with a sense of urgency and anticipation. Cézanne emphasized the roughness of nature in these paintings by combining the stark, architectural forms of the landscape and mountain with the wild, lyrical vegetation. He did not seek to represent nature traditionally, but rather to, first and foremost, express the consistent, permanent nature of the structure beneath the surface.In several of the Mont Sainte-Victoire paintings, Cézanne left parts of the canvas bare. Furthermore, he often used diluted oil paint and watercolor. He saw these as giving him greater freedom and flexibility, painting faster, lighter, and with more fluidity. The fleeting lighting and weather in which some of his paintings were made led to many of them being left unfinished. This unfinished quality of Cézanne's works was a continuation of the Impressionists' method of intentionally making their paintings look unfinished, or sketch-like.In one painting from this period, simply entitled Mont Sainte-Victoire, and which is now in the Annenberg Collection, Cézanne constructed the painting on five different pieces of canvas that were pieced together over time. His brushstrokes cut across pieces of canvas to create one cohesive image, but the addition of these pieces "provides an explanation of [the painting's] development." This multi-canvas technique was rare for Cézanne, but was not unique among the Impressionists; Degas also used this technique, but any direct connection between the two is unlikely. Here, the mountain is clear and pristine, its contours painted with a "brilliant" blue. The western slope is constructed with minute, transparent brushwork over a white primer, and reflects the light shining over the landscape, while the northern slope is darkened in shadow. The sky is painted in even strokes of green, blue, and lavender, with patches of white interjected as passing clouds, while the valley rolls forward in layers of green and ocher towards the farmhouse, which stands firm and geometric among the surrounding, more musical trees and fields. Broader and wetter brushstrokes accompany the composition downwards, along with tighter and more constricted color modulations, while to the right of the mountain, the upright brushstrokes in the plain likewise get broader and more energetic. This conveys a sense of acceleration from left to right, to the point of the space seeming to bend as the brushstrokes get larger and the color gets thinner. The greens and blues in the right third of the sky also get more energetic and abstract and sweep off the canvas. Much of the canvas is left bare in the energy and excitement in which Cézanne produced the painting, but still, the small farmhouse is clearly defined, establishing rhythm and recession. Cézanne's vision for the painting seems to have shifted as he worked on it, as evidenced by the additional strips of canvas and changing energy and style of brushstrokes. Throughout the painting, it is clear that Cézanne wrestled with the issue of trying to convey color while also expressing distance. The work's energy, geometric quality, and abstract look is emblematic of Cézanne's work during this late period.
Impressionists Degas Annenberg