CEZANNE'S
DOU~T
467
color we see in nature induces by a kind of rebound, the vision of the
complementary color, and these complementaries reinforce each
other to obtain in the picture, which will be seen in the dim light of
indoors, the exact effect of colors in sunlight; it is necessary, then, to
suggest to the imagination not only a green, if it is a question of grass,
but also the complementary red which will make it vibrate. Finally,
the local hue itself is broken up by the Impressionists. In g·erteral,
every color can be obtained by juxtaposing, instead of mixing, the·
component colors, with a very vibrant tone resulting. Through these
methods the canvas, which no longer corresponds to nature point by
point, restores, by the interaction of its parts, the general truth of
the impression.
But both the painting of the atmosphere and the division of
hues drown the object and take away from it its peculiar heaviness.
From the composition of Cezanne's pallet we may presume he had
a different aim :there are, not the seven colors of the prism, but 18
colors; 6 reds, 5 yellows, 3 blues, 3 greens, 1 black. The use of warm
colors and of black show that Cezanne wishes to represent the object,
to rediscover it behind the atmosphere. At the same time he renounces
the division of hue and replaces it by graduated mixtures, by an un–
folding of chromatic shadows on the object, by a color modulation
which follows the form and the light received by the object. The sup–
pression of precise contours in certain instances, the fact -that color
dominates the pattern, certainly do not haVIe: the same meaning in
Cezanne as they do in Impressionism. The object is no longer obscured
by reflections, lost in its relations with the air apd with other objects;
it is as though a secret light glowed within it, light emanates from it,
and there results an impression of solidity and matter. Nevertheless
Cezanne does not renounce making the warm colors vibrate; he gets
this color sensation in his use of blue.
We must say, then, that he wanted to return to the object without
giving up the impressionist theory of art, which takes nature as its
model. Emile Bernard reminded him that a picture, in the classic
sense, exacted limitations through its contours, its composition and the
distribution of lights. Cezanne answered: "They are making a pic–
ture and we are attempting a piece of nature." He said of the masters
that they "replace reality with the imagination and with the abstrac–
tion which accompanies imagination,"-and of nature that "one
must submit to this perfect work, from it everything comes to us,
through it we exist, let us forget the rest." He states that he wanted
to make of impressionism "something solid like the art of museums."·
