At the heart of pictorial modernity, Paul Cézanne occupies a decisive place, both discreet and foundational. Through landscapes, still lifes, and figures, the book traces a body of work constructed over time, marked by an exceptional rigour of practice. Canvas after canvas, Cézanne revisits, adjusts, and reconstructs, until he makes colour and volume the very foundation of painting itself, a process that Pablo Picasso recognised as foundational and decisive for the birth of Cubism and of 20th-century art. The book is written by Jean-Luc Chalumeau (author, in the same collection, of the monograph dedicated to Van Gogh), an art critic and historian, professor, and essayist whose work has greatly contributed to reflection on modern and contemporary art. In particular, he offers an in-depth reading of the artist’s work, attentive to aesthetic issues, artistic lineages, and the transformations of painting between the 19th century and modernity.
