Gardanne painting

Paul Cézanne is credited with bridging the gap from 19th century Impressionism to 20th century Post-Impressionism. His ability to build form out of color and his approach to colorful depictions of nature inspired both Cubism and Fauvism.

Picasso once referred to Cezanne as, “the father of us all.”

Cézanne was born January 19, 1839 in Aix-en-Provence. He was the eldest son of a French banker and former hat maker.

Bibémus cezanne

Cézanne’s father was a man of business, who pushed his son to become a lawyer.

Cézanne had a love for his hometown landscape. He became close friends with a classmate who would also become famous, Emile Zola. The two of them grew and supported each other in their artistic pursuits.

As Zola became an author, Cézanne pursued art, studying at the free drawing school.

Artist's Uncle, 1866

The Bathers, 1874

Many of Cézanne’s early works are dark and followed Eugène Delacroix and Édouard Manet’s style of Romanticism that came