50 Fun Facts About Paul Cezanne

In which Provençal town was Cézanne born in 1839?

He was born at 28 rue de l'Opéra and was buried in the town's Saint-Pierre Cemetery.

Which art movement is Cézanne usually filed under?

His work is called the bridge between Impressionism and Cubism.

Which mountain near Aix did Cézanne paint around eighty times?

He first praised it as a 'beau motif' after seeing it from the new Aix–Marseille railway.

Which famous novelist was Cézanne's schoolfriend in Aix?

With Baptistin Baille they were 'Les Trois Inséparables', swimming and fishing in the Arc.

Which two artists reportedly called Cézanne 'the father of us all'?

Picasso also said 'he was the only master for me'.

Which three solids did Cézanne say nature should be treated in terms of?

The 1904 letter to Émile Bernard became a Cubist touchstone.

What was Cézanne's father's profession?

Louis-Auguste co-founded Banque Cézanne et Cabassol and left his son 400,000 francs.

What was the name of the family estate outside Aix that Cézanne painted for decades?

His father bought the 'House of the Wind' in 1859; Cézanne painted four-season murals in its salon.

Whose name did Cézanne ironically sign on his Four Seasons murals of 1860?

He disliked Ingres and dated the winter panel 1811, a nod to Jupiter and Thetis.

What did Cézanne study at university in Aix at his father's insistence?

He neglected it for drawing classes at the Musée Granet and left for Paris in 1861.

Which Paris academy accepted Cézanne after the École des Beaux-Arts turned him down?

There he met Pissarro, ten years his senior, and fellow Aixois Achille Emperaire.

Which older painter did Cézanne call 'God the Father' and claim as his master?

Painting together at Pontoise, Pissarro got him to drop black for the three primaries.

Who was the bookbinder's assistant Cézanne met in 1869 and married in 1886?

She sat for 26 known portraits despite their broken relationship.

In which fishing village near Marseille did Cézanne sit out the Franco-Prussian War?

He was denounced as a deserter in 1871 but never caught; he painted its bay for years.

Which doctor, later Van Gogh's physician, lent Cézanne his studio at Auvers-sur-Oise?

Gachet was an ambitious hobby painter himself.

What did Manet call Cézanne when refusing to show with him in 1874?

Pissarro had to push through Cézanne's inclusion in the first Impressionist exhibition.

Which 1863 Manet painting did Cézanne 'quote' in a more drastic 1874 version?

Cézanne added the suitor, thought to be a self-portrait, to the prostitute and servant.

Which Cézanne painting sold for 300 francs to Count Doria at the first Impressionist show?

The exhibition lost over 180 francs per participating artist.

Which customs inspector became Cézanne's most loyal collector from 1875?

Critic Louis Leroy said his portrait, 'the colour of an old boot', might give a pregnant woman a shock.

Whose thoughtless letter revealed Cézanne's secret family to his father in 1878?

His father halved the monthly allowance before relenting with 400 francs.

Which 1886 Zola novel about a failed painter who kills himself wounded Cézanne?

Claude Lantier's story hurt Cézanne; a 1887 letter shows the friendship survived a while longer.

Why did Cézanne finally marry Hortense in 1886, by the biography's account?

He was terrified of being touched after a childhood kick on the stairs; the marriage was not for love.

Which dealer gave Cézanne his first solo exhibition in Paris in 1895?

He showed 50 of about 150 works Cézanne sent him in a package; Monet was the first buyer.

Which painter first bought a Cézanne painting, per the biography?

Degas, Renoir and Pissarro followed; prices rose a hundredfold.

Which painter did Cézanne accuse of stealing his 'little sensation'?

They had worked together at Pontoise in 1881; Cézanne said Gauguin only painted chinoiseries.

How many paintings make up The Card Players series?

The models were farmhands from the Jas de Bouffan; a Le Nain in the Aix museum inspired the theme.

Who bought a version of The Card Players in 2011 for an estimated $250 million?

It set a record for any painting that stood until November 2017.

Which London institution shows a two-player Card Players beside its study Man with a Pipe?

It co-curated a 2010–11 show of the series with the Metropolitan Museum.

Which city's museum owns the largest Bathers, 208 by 249 cm?

Leo Stein once owned it; Joseph Widener's trust paid $110,000 in 1937.

For how many years did Cézanne work on the largest Bathers, leaving it unfinished?

He built a long narrow gap in his Les Lauves studio wall to move large canvases out.

What did Cézanne have built into his Les Lauves studio wall for the big Bathers canvases?

He moved into the purpose-built studio on the Chemin des Lauves in 1903.

What man-made feature appears centre-right in many of Cézanne's mountain paintings?

The Aix–Marseille line opened in October 1877; the series began half a year later.

Which three vantage points did Cézanne use for his mountain series?

Bibémus was a quarry where he rented a hut; Bellevue was his brother-in-law's property.

What did Cézanne call his 1866–67 palette-knife portraits?

Lawrence Gowing saw in them 'the invention of modern expressionism'.

Which uncle sat for a series of Cézanne's palette-knife portraits?

The series achieved a style 'as unified as Impressionism was fragmentary'.

How did Cézanne get his one and only Salon acceptance, in 1882?

Antoine Guillemet used a juror's privilege; the portrait hung unnoticed in a top row.

What illness did Cézanne develop in 1890?

It made dealing with other people even harder; he turned to Catholicism in 1891.

Which Belgian group exhibited three Cézannes in Brussels in 1890?

Khnopff, Ensor and Van Rysselberghe were among its members.

Which 1900 Maurice Denis painting shows Vollard's gallery with a still life on the easel?

Gide bought it and gave it to the Luxembourg; it hangs in the Musée d'Orsay.

Who wrote the 1903 article 'Love for the Ugly' mocking Cézanne after the Zola sale?

Copies of L'Intransigeant landed on Cézanne's doormat urging him to leave Aix.

Which painter-theorist received Cézanne's 1904 letters and published memoirs of him?

He watched a three-skull vanitas change colour daily during a month's visit in 1904.

What was Cézanne's last painting, worked on the day he took to his deathbed?

Caught in a storm on 15 October 1906, he got pneumonia and died a week later.

What happened to Cézanne during a storm on 15 October 1906?

Hypothermia led to pneumonia; he died on 22 October aged 67.

How old was Cézanne when he died?

He was buried at the Saint-Pierre Cemetery in Aix.

Whom did Cézanne name sole heir in his 1902 will, excluding his wife?

Hortense is said to have burned mementos of his mother.

Which Paris museum holds Cézanne's Four Seasons murals from the Jas de Bouffan?

They were painted on the walls of the Jas de Bouffan drawing room in 1860.

Which paint merchant supplied Cézanne and others in exchange for pictures?

After his death Vollard bought his stock of Cézanne, Gauguin and Van Gogh.

Which hilltop town near Aix did Cézanne paint in 1885–86 in almost Cubist facets?

The run of Gardanne pictures is part of his 'Constructive Period'.

Which critic coined 'Impressionists' in Le Charivari after the 1874 show?

The name came from Monet's Impression, soleil levant; the show was in Nadar's studio.

Which 1865 Cincinnati painting hid a portrait found by X-ray in 2022?

Curators think it may be a self-portrait from his twenties.