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background in a single construction. Yet the background wall fluctuates at an indeterminable
distance like the sky in one of Cezanne's landscapes.
The full beauty of Cezanne's developed style is seen in his Woman with the Coffee-pot, of
about 1895. Cezanne's planes of varying hues of blue and blue-violet have built majestic cylinders
from the arms and a fluted column from the body. Stability is very important for Cezanne. Yet the
door panels in the background tilt slightly to the left, compensating for the turn of the head toward
the right, and the placing of the coffee-pot and cup. The adjustments are so exquisite that the
removal of one element inflicts the whole picture a fatal blow. Cezanne's search for the exact plane
of colour to fit into his structure was so demanding that at times the plane eluded him. Surprising
elements are the mysteriously vertical spoon, and the cylinders of cup and pot, definitely out of
drawing.
By the end of his life Cezanne's development toward abstraction became more evident. The
large Bathers, of 1898-1905, is the culmination of his series of nude compositions. The figures were
neither painted from life, nor in the open air (women in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries did
not bathe naked in streams and sun themselves on the banks). The fantasy gave Cezanne the
materials with which to build a grand imaginary architecture, composed of strikingly simplified
figures, overarching tree trunks, blue sky and white clouds - a modern cathedral of light and colour.
The figures and heads remained schematic, features are suppressed and mouths are omitted entirely.
The end result is a simplification of the human figure that had not been seen since the Middle Ages.
Make sure you know how to pronounce the following words:
Cezanne [
]; Provance [
]; Aix [
]; fatal [
]; threshold
[
]; majestic [
]; imaginary [
]; indeterminable
[
]; Victoire [
]
NOTES
Mont Sainte-Victoire - "Гора Сент-Виктуар"
Card Players - "Игроки в карты"
Still life with Apples and Oranges - "Натюрморт с корзиной фруктов"
Woman with the Coffee-pot - "Женщина с кофейником"
Bathers - "Купальщицы"
TASKS
I. Read the text. Make sure you understand it. Mark the following statements true or false.
1. Cezanne was born in Normandy.
2. Cezanne's early works were Neo-classic.
3. Cezanne exhibited his paintings at the Salon in 1877.
4. Portraiture to Cezanne was second only to still life.
5. Cezanne developed abstractionism.
6. The figures in the Bathers were painted from life.
II. How well have you read? Can you answer the following questions?
1. What interested Cezanne at the beginning of his career? What sayings illustrate Cezanne's
mature style?
2. What subject did Cezanne repeatedly study? What is depicted in the Mont Sainte-Victoire^.
How did Cezanne produce the effect of durability and massiveness? What did Cezanne achieve
from nature?
3. What is shown in the Still life with Apples and Oranges? What discrepancies are seen in this
work of art?
4. What subject did Cezanne choose for his figure pieces? What is depicted in the Card
Players? How did Cezanne arrange the figures?
5. Where is the full beauty of Cezanne's developed style seen? What dominates in this
painting?
6. What makes the Bathers a masterpiece? Why is Cezanne claimed to be the father of modern
art?
III. i. Give Russian equivalents of the following phrases: