Cézanne: A Memoir with Conversations

by Joachim Gasquet

From dust jacket "Joachim Gasquet's personal and largely first-hand study of the greatest and most profound modern painter has been known to Cezanne experts and art historians for some time. But it has hitherto been available only in the French edition that was published originally in 1921. Now the English-reading audience is introduced for the first time to an invaluable and often-cited source of information on Cezanne's aspirations and ideas. Gasquet's father Henri was a schoolboy friend of Cezanne's in Aix, and in his later years Cezanne painted impressive portraits of both father and son. Joachim himself, a young man with a consuming interest in literature and Provencal culture, first came to know Cezanne in 1896. On numerous occasions prior to Cezanne's death in 1906, he saw and talked with the artist he so much admired. The first half of the book offers an account of Cezanne's life and career, based on Cezanne's own hints and testimony as well as details Gasquet obtained from others who had known the artist at various stages of his life in Paris and Aix. The second half is couched in the form of conversations between Gasquet and Cezanne, in the course of which Cezanne struggles to formulate his basic artistic philosophy. What emerges is a poignant and unforgettable portrait of a tortured, obsessed genius who seemed doomed never to satisfy his own ideals...."

Genres: Art, Biography, France

240 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1990

Reviews

[Matthew Blais · Rating 5 out of 5]

Roughly sketched over-the-top praise: got this from the library and immediately bought it upon finishing, I now need it always within reach. The “Conversations” are invaluable. Cezanne’s sensibilities make so much sense, things I’ve long suspected and felt but perhaps don’t have the courage to follow through on. I’m serious, I think what Cezanne did is painfully hard, as this book makes clear enough. Even (in the few instances) where I don’t agree, he convinces me. Of course one wants to be challenged with new perspectives, but this isn’t just mere echo chamber for me, it’s having some of my most foundational beliefs about art articulated better than I’ve ever come across. This is the closest approximation I’ve found to something I’ve searched for a long time; it might be the single best book I’ve read about art, and I don’t say that lightly. Pure validation, but I think that does one good once in a while. The biography section has nice prose, and balances mythologizing with harsh reality (but mostly the former), but I repeat: the Conversations. I’ve seen one of the Straub-Hulliet films based on them, and it has its own merit of course, but reading the book completely and closely is really a whole other world. There are a number of other painters from this time whose painting I’d put ahead of Cezanne (though I don’t think that anymore), but none whose ideas have reached me as deeply. Van Gogh’s letters, which I love, have a subtle naivety, but here Cezanne is so confident, speaking as if it’s life or death; yet paradoxically, by virtue of him largely shunning theory, he often comes through lighthearted, not expecting to be taken seriously. In any case, a genius no doubt, both apparent by his words, his work, and work ethic. This made me realize a real biopic of an artist would just be them painting 12 hours straight a day, and that’s it. Timeless thoughts throughout, words to live by, endlessly quotable: “colour is the place where our brain and the universe meet”. When we look at a Cezanne, we see a landscape imprinted onto his being. Again, I don’t act in accordance to Cezanne’s thoughts & beliefs, but ask me again in 5 or 10 years.

[Guillermo Amengual · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quin llibre!!! Inspirador és poc. No sé, potser Cézanne s'ha convertit en un dels meus pintors preferits. Jo, quan estudiava els seus quadres a batxillerat, aquelles constants repeticions de la muntanya Saint-Victoire..., no entenia res. Ara crec que sí. O, almanco, crec entendre millor... Em sent bastant proper a Cézanne com a persona i artista: la seva gran passió per la vida, pels paisatges, per la gent... Voler acostar-se al poble i a la vida amb el seu art, respectar, per damunt de tot, la constància en el treball, intentar millorar i aprendre sempre... també la seva actitud una mica derrotada, solitària, incompresa... no sé qui me crec dient això, fent aquesta comparació.

És un llibre genial.

[Lib · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this because I got a glimpse into something real about him, filtered through his friend's son but still. There was insight and there were memories of things he talked about. Invaluable, if you ask me.

[José Miguel Tomasena · Rating 4 out of 5]

No es periodismo, pero es lo más cercano a ello en el siglo XIX: una especie de diario sobre conversaciones del autor con el gran pinto Cezanne. Impresionante la voluntad del pintor por retratar las cosas reales y no los que las abstracciones.
Un libro que pega perfectamente con lecturas sobre fenomenología, en especial con El mundo de la percepción: siete lecciones, de Maurice Merleu Ponty. (De hecho, llegué a este libro a partir de una nota al pie de página de este último).

[Louise Leetch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick read & insightful into Cezanne's extrasensory feel for color; but it's better if you have some knowledge of late 19th c artists & especially the Paris salon. Read Vreeland's Luncheon of the Boating Party first.