{"id":18715,"date":"2022-09-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-28T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistoryrevealed\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=18715"},"modified":"2022-10-03T15:46:48","modified_gmt":"2022-10-03T13:46:48","slug":"what-great-paintings-say-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistoryrevealed\/2022\/09\/29\/what-great-paintings-say-2\/","title":{"rendered":"What great paintings say"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

HISTORY OF ART<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n

The Sea at L\u2019Estaque Behind the Trees<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

This idyllic French scene, depicting the artist\u2019s summer retreat, demonstrates techniques that would go on to inspire Cubism <\/p>\n\n

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The Sea at L\u2019Estaque Behind the Trees<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n
by Paul Cezanne, 1878\u201379 <\/h5>\n\n

Perched between the mountains and the sea, with stunning views of the Bay of Marseille, the small fishing village of l\u2019Estaque in southern France has a claim to fame that few other locations can rival: it was once a sanctuary for one of the most influential artists in the history of modern painting. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cCezanne\u2019s relationship with l\u2019Estaque started in 1864, when his mother began renting a house in the village that she could use as a summer retreat, as well as a bolthole from which she could escape her overbearing husband,\u201d says Natalia Sidlina, curator of international art at Tate Modern. \u201cCezanne would often accompany his mother, staying there for weeks at a time, painting the views from the hills above the village. It was there that he hid to avoid conscription in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, and where he would spend time with his mistress (later his wife) and their child, without his father\u2019s knowledge.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

Cezanne painted dozens of landscapes of l\u2019Estaque, writing to fellow artist Camille Pissarro: \u201cIt\u2019s [l\u2019Estaque] like a playing card. Red roofs against the blue sea… olive trees and pines, which always keep their leaves. The sun here is so frightful that it seems to me the objects are silhouetted not in white or black, but in blue, red, brown, violet…\u201d <\/p>\n\n

Becoming Cezanne<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

\u201cThe Sea at L\u2019Estaque Behind the Trees<\/em> is a wonderful work and one where we can see Cezanne refining the techniques that made him the artist we know today,\u201d continues Sidlina. \u201cL\u2019Estaque has been pinpointed as the place where Cezanne became Cezanne. It\u2019s where his use of colour came into full force, and where we see him using his famous, constructive parallel brushstrokes. \u201cImpressionist art is about capturing a particular moment at a particular time, in a particular light, and so on. Cezanne went a step further and adopted a new approach to painting that was based on <\/p>\n\n

Impressionism, but at the same time removed from it. Instead of trying to capture a specific moment, Cezanne concentrated on his own sensory reaction to what he was painting, and the ways in which objects could be perceived. His work at l\u2019Estaque \u2013 particularly his use of simplified, geometric shapes \u2013 has been described as a forerunner to Cubism.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

Indeed, not only did Pablo Picasso loosely base his early Cubist work Les Demoiselles d\u2019Avignon <\/em>(1907) on one of Cezanne\u2019s compositions, but the Spanish artist even went on to acquire The Sea at L\u2019Estaque Behind the Trees <\/em>for his personal collection. Today the painting is owned by the Mus\u00e9e Picasso in Paris, which has loaned the work to Tate Modern. <\/p>\n\n

Depth and dimension <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

Interestingly, people do not feature in Cezanne\u2019s landscapes \u2013 not even a boat can be seen in the sea beyond the village. The one nod to the wave of industrialisation that swept through 19th-century Europe is the chimney towering over the houses. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cHorizontals were very important to Cezanne,\u201d says Sidlina. \u201cThere are only a handful of paintings where he depicts the ground on which he set up his easel \u2013 this being one of them. And he was careful to establish flat planes in his work: here we see the line of the road at his feet, the roofs of the buildings below descending down the hill, and the acute line of the horizon, where the sea meets the sky. He uses these layers to create depth to his work, building dimension and really drawing the viewer in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

<\/div>
\n
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1. FACTORY CHIMNEY <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The factory chimney in l\u2019Estaque stands out among the small houses dotted on the hillside. Despite including the structure in many of his paintings, Cezanne did not like the impact of industrialisation on his beloved village and the fast pace of the changes that were taking place. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The artist was particularly upset at the installation of electric lighting on the waterfront, writing \u201c[The authorities] will not rest until they have transformed everything into horrible quays with gas lights and \u2013 what is even worse \u2013 electric lighting. What times we live in!\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
2. HIDDEN RAILWAY <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Despite enjoying the convenience of rail travel to make the journey to l\u2019Estaque from his home in Aix-en-Provence (about 18 miles away), Cezanne set up his easel so that the rail track, located below the path, could not be seen. <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n

Words: Charlotte Hodgman <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

VISIT<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

The Sea at L\u2019Estaque Behind the Trees <\/em>will be among more than 80 works on show in The EY Exhibition: Cezanne at Tate Modern, London, from 5 October 2022\u201312 March 2023. For details, visit tate.org.uk<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n\n

\u00a9 RMN -GRAND PALAIS -MATHIEU RABEAU<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Cezanne landscape goes under the microscope in our history of art series<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":19057,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"56","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"56","purple_seq_number":"1","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"1","purple_source_article":"article_56-1.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_56-1.xml","purple_source_issue":"November-2022","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"November-2022","purple_external_id":"November-2022-56-1","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"November-2022-56-1","purple_issue_code":"|0000090402||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000090402||","purple_android_product":"com.im.historyrevealed.113","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.historyrevealed.113","purple_ios_product":"com.im.historyrevealed.113","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.historyrevealed.113","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"a2288b80-d22c-492c-8b11-acb0804789ee","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2022-10-03T13:46:54Z","apple_news_article-theme":"","apple_news_api_id":"0e5ebb63-0b72-4f4f-9dd4-05044eabbbb6","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2022-10-03T13:46:54Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/ADl67YwtyT0-d1AUETqu7tg","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":true,"apple_news_is_preview":true,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_article_theme":"","apple_news_sections":"[]"},"categories":[17],"tags":[55],"apple_news_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2022\/09\/Paul-Cezanne-e1664220696428.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistoryrevealed\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"4","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2022\/09\/Paul-Cezanne-e1664220696428.jpg",2000,1340,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2022\/09\/Paul-Cezanne-e1664220696428-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2022\/09\/Paul-Cezanne-e1664220696428-300x201.jpg",300,201,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2022\/09\/Paul-Cezanne-e1664220696428-768x515.jpg",768,515,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2022\/09\/Paul-Cezanne-e1664220696428-1024x686.jpg",800,536,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2022\/09\/Paul-Cezanne-e1664220696428-1536x1029.jpg",1536,1029,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2022\/09\/Paul-Cezanne-e1664220696428.jpg",2000,1340,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistoryrevealed\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"A Cezanne landscape goes under the microscope in our history of art series","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistoryrevealed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18715"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistoryrevealed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistoryrevealed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistoryrevealed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistoryrevealed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18715"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistoryrevealed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19851,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistoryrevealed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18715\/revisions\/19851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistoryrevealed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistoryrevealed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistoryrevealed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistoryrevealed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}