Paul Cezanne

PAUL CÐ"‰ZANNE

Post Impressionism, as the name would suggest, is the art movement that directly followed Impressionism. One artist, who led the Post Impressionism movement, was French artist, Paul CÐ"©zanne. Much of his early work was pure Impressionism and, although he was introduced to the style and guided by Camille Pissarro, CÐ"©zanne's works showed a distinctive uniqueness. CÐ"©zanne broke away from Impressionism because of the lack of composition; he felt the desire to depict subjects in the third dimension as well as appearing flat. CÐ"©zanne did not agree with the Impressionistic trait of portraying the world through light, instead, he built up images by a generous use of colour. CÐ"©zanne would distort objects and his works would often consist of numerous viewpoints on the one canvas.

CÐ"©zanne worked with and was greatly influenced by other Impressionists he associated with, including Degas, Monet, Pissarro and Renoir. It was Pissarro who guided CÐ"©zanne and convinced him to break up the colour and use shorter brush strokes when painting; among CÐ"©zanne's friends, Pissorro was the only one patient enough to teach him. CÐ"©zanne also admired Romantic painter, EugÐ"Ёne Delacroix, who used colour instead of lines to define objects; this inspired him to endeavour his quest for composition using colour alone. Many aspects of CÐ"©zanne's early works can be traced back to the compositions of Delacroix's works.

CÐ"©zanne strived to add form to Impressionism therefore he strayed from his peers, whom he believed lacked composition in their works. He did not have the same attraction towards light as did many Impressionist, he believed that the structure of objects should be portrayed through colour, not light, "I seek to render perspective only through colour". CÐ"©zanne created the illusion of depth in his works by adding numerous layers of colour to distinguish the form of his subjects. He would perfect the design in his works by distorting objects and having multiple viewpoints on the same object. In "Still Life with Apples and Peaches" (1905), the table is seen from two different sides, as well as from above and some of the objects on the table are viewed front on, while others are viewed from above.

CÐ"©zanne would create a 3D effect in his works by