An affordable introduction to the key places, people and motifs in the
life and art of Cezanne
Paul Cezanne's incomparable, architectonic rendering of light and color
provided the foundation of his reputation as a forerunner of modernism.
Which specific locations left such vivid impressions on this scion of a
provincial banker's family? What and who were the influences supporting
and advancing his innovative oeuvre? In this affordable volume,
acclaimed art historian James H. Rubin traces Cezanne's life and work
from A to Z, creating an image of a painter who aspired to "do Poussin
over again after nature." As the book's title indicates, Rubin also
explicates and champions the Société Paul Cezanne's campaign to remove
the accent on the artist's surname in accordance with its original
Provençal spelling.
James H. Rubin (born 1944) is an art historian and professor at the
State University of New York in Stony Brook, specializing in
19th-century art with a particular interest in French modernism. He has
published 13 books, including Impressionism (Phaidon, 1999),
Impressionism and the Modern Landscape (University of California
Press, 2008), How to Read Impressionism (Abrams, 2013) and, most
recently, Why Monet Matters: Meanings Among the Lily Pads (Penn State
University Press, 2021).
