Cézanne at the Whitworth review – sublime sketches of insight and passion

Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
From the tenderness of parenthood to shattering images of death, Cézanne’s drawings are charged with an electrifying power

The Whitworth Art Gallery exists for “the perpetual gratification of the people of Manchester”, in the words of its Victorian founder, and in that spirit it has one of the most democratic approaches in the country to its collection of prints and drawings. Anyone can make an appointment to explore its boxes of works by the likes of Turner and Blake. Its new exhibition Cézanne at the Whitworth celebrates that collection, and a remarkable gift to it that proves the spirit of Victorian philanthropy is alive.

The story starts with a radical masterpiece the Whitworth bought in 1927 when many Britons would have regarded it as a worthless scrap of paper. Paul Cézanne’s Study of Trees still challenges today. Black strands like fluttering seaweed mark the tracks of thin, twisting branches in empty space while watery touches of olive and orange hint at foliage. The art of summer is usually imagined as a sensual picnic beside a sun-kissed sea – Luxe, Calme et Volupté, “luxury, peace and voluptuousness”, as Matisse, quoting Baudelaire, called an ecstatic nude beach scene. There’s a romp of a drawing by Picasso in the Whitworth’s show that delivers that Riviera vibe, and then some. Two women are bathing naked in an abundance of curvy lines that communicates the artist’s greedy delight in their bodies. But this gleefully erotic Mediterranean scene just underlines that where Picasso leaps in, Cézanne holds back, staring, thinking, and alone.

At the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, until 1 March.

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