Cezanne by Himself

by Paul Cezanne

Published 13 October 1988
A volume on the life and work of Paul Cezanne which brings together a diverse and revealing selection of material, drawn from his oeuvre of 800 paintings and 2000 drawings and watercolours, and also from his correspondence and the memoirs of his friends. One of the most influential of the 19th-century artists, Cezanne was nonetheless far from being a conventional hero, and was ill at ease in the cares and the salons of the Paris art world. His work shows a classical concern with form and structure which sets it apart from the Impressionist mainstream, and led a subsequent generation of art historians to dub him the first post-Impressionist. This book provides evidence of the artist's friendships and family life, and shows the paradoxes and contradictions of his personality through his own writings and reminiscences of his contemporaries.