BOB KIRSCH
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work that itself would endure. Pissarro, who knew Cezanne well,
said of him: "All his life he has been painting the same picture":
Shy and introspective, Cezanne chose to address motifs and themes
with which extended contact had disposed him to feel comfort–
able. Thus, self-portraits fascinated him while most of his other
portraits show persons he knew well, frequently members of his
family. In more than half of his landscapes, he represented motifs
of the area around Aix-en-Provence. Of the remainder of the
landscapes, most were painted in proximity to Paris, the city to
which he had journeyed as a young man to become a painter and
to which he returned again and again. Almost all his still lifes
contain objects familiar to the natives of Aix. Exotic objects rarely
appear. His Bathers compositions are founded upon the ex–
perience of his adolescent swimming expeditions; he painted and
drew hundreds of them, and it was probably to these that Pissarro
referred. Thus, Cezanne chose to repeat himself frequently,
exploring nuance slowly. During each state of his artistic life, he
mined and refined his earlier achievement.
His tastes were not completely typical of those of the
Impressionist painters with whom he associated: neither the crowds
on city streets, the chic of Parisian women, the ambiance of the
cafes, nor the small-town activities of country markets are given
place in his work. Compared to Delacroix, Manet, Pissarro, Renoir,
Monet, and other leading contemporary painters he admired, he
was less cosmopolitan. He possessed, in contrast, certain of the
characteristics of a contemplative. Monet's friend Gustave Geffroy
wrote in 1894, "Remaining for hours and hours, days and days,
before the same spectacle, determined to penetrate within it, to
understand it, to express it-an obstinate creature, a seeker,
diligent....There was...sustained effort... .lt was an unforgettable
sight, Renoir tells me, to see Cezanne installed at his easel,
painting, looking at the countryside....He would come back the
next day, and every day, he would accumulate his efforts."
Works like
Still Life with Compotier,
1879-80,
The Gulf of
Marseilles Seen from Estaque,
c. 1885, and
Cistern in the Park at the
Chateau Noir,
c. 1900, speak to the viewer of how they have been
built up as part of a patient, sustained process. The balanced, nu–
anced interrelationships that fill each of these canvases from
edge to edge reflect his perseverence in examining his motifs
