Cezanne

For Picasso he was "like our father"; for Matisse, "a god of painting." PaulCézanne (1839–1906) is widely regarded as the father of modern art. Inthis authoritative and accessible study, Richard Verdi traces the evolutionof Cézanne’s landscape, still life, and figure compositions from theturbulently romantic creations of his youth to the visionary masterpiecesof his final years. The painter’s biography—his fluctuating reputation andstrained relations with his parents, wife, and close friend Emile Zola—isvividly evoked using excerpts from his own letters and from contemporaryaccounts of the artist. Cézanne was torn between the desires to bothmake and find art—to master the themes of the past, through his copyingsessions in the Louvre, and to explore the eternal qualities of nature inthe countryside of his native Provence. In this way, the artist sought "tomake of impressionism something solid and durable, like the art of themuseums." In this richly illustrated overview, now updated throughout andwith a new preface, Verdi explores the strength, vitality, and magnitude ofCézanne’s achievement.