The painting above was shown in 1895 in Paris in the gallery of Ambroise Vollard and was the first work that Cezanne had shown in almost 20 years. Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) has the distinction of being both an Impressionist and a Post-Impressionist, and how that came to be has a lot to do with why he did not show his art in Paris for 20 years. As with many of the artists who were in the Impressionist movement, Cezanne struggled with his family to become a painter. He actually had to study law while taking courses at the local Beaux Arts in Aix-en-Provence. When in 1861 he was finally able to get support for what he most wanted to do, paint, off to Paris he went. Rejected consistently by the Paris Salon but also by the Salon des Refusés (1864-1869), which is where the Impressionists earned their name, he returned to his beloved Provence. However, during his time in Paris, he developed a friendship with painter Camille Pissarro, who was almost a father figure to Cezanne, as opposed to Cezanne’s own banker father. When Cezanne fled Paris during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) and returned to the south of France, it was what he had learned from Pissarro (mostly determination) that stayed with him and influenced his views on his painting. In his long sojourn away from Paris, really the rest of his life after 1878, he moved from what could be defined as Impressionism, to what became an extension of the idea that bridged its way to early 20th century Cubism.
While Cezanne is well-known for his landscapes, including his many paintings of Mont Sainte Victoire, he is also known for still life paintings and for an important series of paintings, five altogether, known as The Card Players (1893-1896). One of the most interesting aspects of that series is how the paintings of two or three men playing cards become what some have called, “human still life.” It is worth taking a few moments to compare the painting of the fruit and the painting of the men playing cards to look at what Cezanne added to the vocabulary of painting in his time.
The first thing to notice about the two men playing cards is how intent they are on what they are doing. Now most paintings of card players, such as the ones done by the Dutch in the 17th century (especially anything by Jan Steen) are full of activity. Caravaggio’s famous The Cardsharps (1594) shows active cheating, one player with a winning card tucked behind his back while his partner spies on the hand of a vulnerable young man. Here there is none of that. The two men, one a gardener on Cezanne’s father’s estate (known as Père Alexandre, on the left) and a farm worker, Paulin Paulet (on the right), concentrate on their hands. Oddly there is no money seen on the table, nor are there wine glasses though there is a bottle of wine present. Those items would indicate action, and Cezanne cuts the action in this scene to a minimum. One would think that it would take a very long time for these two to play this hand.
In looking at the two paintings and thinking of the soft, lovely works of the Impressionists, one notices right away that Cezanne has hard edges. In The Basket of Apples, the handling of the white table cloth upon which the apples sit has a sharp angularity. The apples might fool one on first glance as some of them seem nothing more than red-orange balls. The basket holding some of the apples is tilted forward, though one sees no signs of what supports its upright position. The white plate holds what might be small loaves of bread, all rather indistinct in their forms. Yet, this adds more of the yellow color that plays off the yellow in the apples. One sees little block like stokes of color, very much like what one sees in Cezanne’s landscapes. There is a splat of orange-ish brown on the left hand side of the table, matched by another across the middle of the bottle of wine. The table cloth and the back wall both have little strokes of blue which unite the foreground and the background. Now while Cezanne felt that art ran parallel to nature, we definitely get the idea that Cezanne’s nature was somewhat abstracted and hard-edged, not unlike other post-impressionists, such as Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin.
In looking at The Card Players, the block like strokes of color mold the bodies of the two players, with the purples and dark greens around the edges of the sleeves and the jackets contrasting with the lighter splashes of color in the middle of the arms and the bodies, working to give a rounded feeling. One can tell there is an age difference between the men, with the younger man seeming larger and more robust than Père Alexandre. Their hats have character, as do their long jackets, but they seem perfectly comfortable in each other’s company. Their game of cards is a portrait not so much of the two men but of an element that symbolizes the timeless culture of Provence, where things move more slowly and where Cezanne, someone who suffered from depression and moodiness, knew tranquility.
Cezanne joins the elements of the painting of this card game together with his color harmonies of violets and lavender opposed by oranges and pale greens. We see them in the clothing, on the table cloth and in the smattering of paint on the back wall of the café. This is similar to what he does in The Basket of Apples, where the oranges, reds, and yellows of the fruit contrast with the cool blues and whites of the table cloth and the white dish holding the bread. They are real and recognizable but anything but photographic or naturalistic. His choppy strokes of color and the angularity in the posing of the arms and bodies of these figures, or the sharp folds in the white table cloth in The Basket of Apples, have the hallmarks of the Cubism that was to come. While Cubism is associated with Pablo Picasso, Picasso said that Cezanne was “the father of us all,” meaning all the early 20th century cubists. He referred to Cezanne as his “one and only master.”
So Paul Cezanne, who left Paris to return to his roots in the South of France and worked for years in his studio in Aix-en-Provence, not bothering to show work at all, is the father of all of those modern painters who came after. He is not only a great painter but an inspiration to all those who simply have to follow their own path, their wonders to reveal. Here you see one of his many self-portraits. What a beautiful curmudgeon.
Cezanne’s painting are in Public Domain.
Marjorie Vernelle is an artist, writer, college professor, and traveler. For more see the Pages at ofartandwine.com or her author page at amazon.com and her art at Vernelle Art Boutique vernellestudio.com.
Rosé, the Wine of Provence.
You see it in the two paintings above, like a silent symbol of the land, a cultural icon. Yes, it’s the bottle of wine. While the bottles present in Cezanne’s paintings are quite dark, perhaps they even contain red wine (and there are fine reds produced in Provence), one likes to think that a proud Provençal like Cezanne would have them hold some rosé. First thing to get straight is that rosé is not just red wine and white wine mixed together, with the exception of some pink champagnes. In fact rosé wines in France have an appellation that forbids the blending of wines, though different kinds of grapes, including some whites, can be mixed together on their way to becoming wine. Rosé was once simply the wine of Provence, refreshingly light to drink in summer, and not much paid attention to. Then White Zinfandel became popular and according to some has mistakenly been considered a blush wine when it is actually made in the same way as rosé. In recent years rosé in all its forms has grown in prominence. In fact, it now outsells white wines in France. So what is this wine called rosé?
Rosé is a way of life in Provence. It’s made from Grenache, Cinsault or Mourvedre grapes to produce a light, crisp, dry taste that goes well with vegetables, seafood and meat. The process requires that the crushed grapes sit for 2-3 days with the skins still present during a process called maceration. During those days, through the process called saignée, the color of the grape skins bleeds into the wine to create those varying levels of pink. While Provence is the most famous producer of rosés, the Italians produce a variety of rosatos including the cherry pink Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo. Spain produces rosados in Navarra and Rioja. Of course, rosé is also produced in the wine growing regions here in the U.S.A. and include such delicately colored lovelies as Sebastiani Vineyards, Eye of the Swan.
Four Types of Wine: White, Rosé, Tavel, and Red
No kidding. Tavel is a town whose name is a rosé appellation. Tavel is rosé and everything in Tavel is “la vie en rose” by law. Tavel has a deep reddish pink color that sometimes has the orange tones of the sunset. The grapes used are Grenache, Syrah and Cinsault but often mixed with white grapes (not wine, just grapes) to lighten the color and give a flowery tone.
Oh, you make me blush!
The term blush wines, mentioned above, would seem to indicate a different process used in the creation of the wine. However, so-called blush wines are mostly made in the same fashion as rosé, as previously explained. In the U.S.A. they often bear the names White Zinfandel, White Grenache, and White Merlot and tend to be sweeter in taste than many of the classic Provençal rosés. There are those who draw fine distinctions between rosé and blush wines. One process for making blush wines is to create Vin Gris (gray wine), which takes black grapes, lightly presses them after harvest and ferments the juice without the skins. The result is a dry though slightly sweet wine that is pale pink in color. For more on blush versus rosé and the rise of White Zinfandel, take a look at this article by Keith Beavers for VinePair.com https://vinepair.com/wine-geekly/your-guide-to-blush-wine-which-isnt-rose-but-kind-of-is/
In terms of selecting the rosé wine that best suits your taste preferences, I am turning you over to an expert, Jackie Blisson , whose video is linked here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5NZAV86rrk For a never-ending list of food pairings (and believe me rosé goes with everything), Fiona Beckett’s Matching Food and Wine has really great suggestions for every type of rosé, https://www.matchingfoodandwine.com/news/pairings/the-best-food-pairings-for-ros/
Provence with its wine-growing areas on both banks of the Rhone River has led the way in terms of the rosé revolution. It is becoming a wine for any occasion and all seasons, and the subject of literature. Elizabeth Gabay MW has written a book on the subject called Rosé: Understanding the Pink Wine Revolution. If this is whetting your appetite for some quality rosé, you can try any number of different kinds through a wine club like Cellars Wine Club, which has a wide selection, a plan to suit every budget and level of expertise, and a “No bad bottle” return policy. www.cellarswineclub.com
So just think of Cezanne as you look at The Card Players, The Basket of Apples or his Mont Sainte Victoire, sip a glass of your favorite rosé, perhaps a Tavel, and take a mental journey off to Provence. You’ll be glad you did.
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©marjorie vernelle 2019
Coming soon: Botticelli on the Half-Shell, with Sancerre or Muscadet?
The painting is iconic, no question about that. But what goes better with seafood, Sancerre or Muscadet? Well, that is the question. Make sure to come explore the option, next on Of Art and Wine.