For Picasso he was "like our father"; for Matisse, "a god of painting."
Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) is widely regarded as the father of modern art.
In this authoritative and accessible study, Richard Verdi traces the
evolution of Cézanne's landscape, still-life, and figure compositions
from the turbulently romantic creations of his youth to the visionary
masterpieces of his final years. The painter's biography--his
fluctuating reputation and strained relations with his parents, wife,
and close friend Emile Zola--is vividly evoked using excerpts from his
own letters and from contemporary accounts of the artist. Cézanne was
torn between the desires to both make and find art--to master the themes
of the past, through his copying sessions in the Louvre, and to explore
the eternal qualities of nature in the countryside of his native
Provence. In this way, the artist sought "to make of Impressionism
something solid and durable, like the art of the museums." In this
richly illustrated overview, now updated throughout and with a new
preface, Verdi explores the strength, vitality, and magnitude of
Cézanne's achievement.