Reconstructing Cézanne: Sequence and Process in Paul Cézanne’s Works on Paper

by Paul Cézanne (Artist), Walter Feilchenfeldt (Introduction), Fabienne Ruppen (Contributor)

A groundbreaking approach to the study of Cézanne’s works on paper This book brings to light new research into the work of Paul Cézanne (1839–1906), based on close examination of the DNA makeup that constitutes the papers he used for his watercolors and drawings. The book features in-depth analyses of the works in the show by Fabienne Ruppen, as well as extensive commentary on Cézanne scholarship by Walter Feilchenfeldt, co-author of the artist’s new catalogue raisonné.

At the heart of the book are two watercolors that Cézanne produced from a large sheet of paper, which he divided in two sections for the purpose of capturing different landscapes, La Montagne Sainte-Victoire , from 1885–87, and a Paysage Provençal . Reunited for the first time, these two parts of the same sheet exemplify Ruppen’s research methods and the way these enable us to reconsider the dating of Cézanne’s work based on forensic evidence.

80 pages, Hardcover

Published February 18, 2020

About the author

Paul Cézanne was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century. Cézanne can be said to form the bridge between late 19th century Impressionism and the early 20th century's new line of artistic enquiry, Cubism. The line attributed to both Matisse and Picasso that Cézanne "is the father of us all" cannot be easily dismissed.

Cézanne's work demonstrates a mastery of design, colour, composition and draftsmanship. His often repetitive, sensitive and exploratory brushstrokes are highly characteristic and clearly recognizable. He used planes of colour and small brushstrokes that build up to form complex fields, at once both a direct expression of the sensations of the observing eye and an abstraction from observed nature. The paintings convey Cézanne's intense study of his subjects, a searching gaze and a dogged struggle to deal with the complexity of human visual perception.