WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.049 Welcome to the deep dive. Today, we're embarking 00:00:03.049 --> 00:00:05.530 on a journey into the life and mind of an artist 00:00:05.530 --> 00:00:08.109 who, while people routinely call him the most 00:00:08.109 --> 00:00:10.970 important painter of the 19th century, yet his 00:00:10.970 --> 00:00:12.970 name doesn't always have that immediate sort 00:00:12.970 --> 00:00:15.910 of explosive recognition like some of his contemporaries. 00:00:16.190 --> 00:00:18.589 We are peeling back the layers on Paul Cezanne. 00:00:18.809 --> 00:00:20.309 That's absolutely right. And we're diving into 00:00:20.309 --> 00:00:22.170 a stack of sources today that really establish 00:00:22.170 --> 00:00:24.829 Paul Cezanne, the French post -impressionist, 00:00:24.870 --> 00:00:28.870 living from 1839 to 1906, not just as a great 00:00:28.870 --> 00:00:31.440 talent, which he was, obviously. Right. But as 00:00:31.440 --> 00:00:34.280 the essential, you could say, foundational architect 00:00:34.280 --> 00:00:37.420 of the modern visual world, he really is that 00:00:37.420 --> 00:00:40.500 crucial link between the kind of fleeting, light 00:00:40.500 --> 00:00:43.340 -obsessed observations of 19th century Impressionism. 00:00:43.380 --> 00:00:46.500 Capturing the moment. Exactly. And then the structured, 00:00:46.600 --> 00:00:49.100 sometimes fragmented reality that would explode 00:00:49.100 --> 00:00:51.700 into 20th century movements like Cubism. He's 00:00:51.700 --> 00:00:54.090 the bridge. So our mission. For you listening 00:00:54.090 --> 00:00:56.590 is to move beyond maybe just the standard view 00:00:56.590 --> 00:00:58.969 of his still lifes and landscapes, you know, 00:00:58.969 --> 00:01:00.969 the apples and mountains. Sure. The famous ones. 00:01:01.070 --> 00:01:03.649 We've gathered sources covering his life, which 00:01:03.649 --> 00:01:07.989 was famously difficult, quite solitary. His unique, 00:01:08.010 --> 00:01:10.890 almost scientific, artistic method. And then 00:01:10.890 --> 00:01:14.069 this astonishing, really decades delayed triumph 00:01:14.069 --> 00:01:17.430 of his legacy. We really want to understand not 00:01:17.430 --> 00:01:20.650 just what Cezanne painted, but how his radical 00:01:20.650 --> 00:01:23.349 approach fundamentally changed the rules of seeing, 00:01:23.430 --> 00:01:25.790 of how we perceive things. And if you need just 00:01:25.790 --> 00:01:29.250 one thing, one quote, to really cement his importance, 00:01:29.349 --> 00:01:31.290 before we even dive in, let's go straight to 00:01:31.290 --> 00:01:33.370 the giants who followed him. Okay. Both Henri 00:01:33.370 --> 00:01:38.269 Matisse and Pablo Picasso. Hmm. I mean, the undisputed 00:01:38.269 --> 00:01:41.310 titans of early modernism, they both reportedly 00:01:41.310 --> 00:01:44.780 called Cezanne the father of us all. Wow. The 00:01:44.780 --> 00:01:47.200 father of us all. Yeah. That's not just praise. 00:01:47.299 --> 00:01:50.000 That's an admission. It tells you immediately 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:52.180 he's absolutely crucial, not just some historical 00:01:52.180 --> 00:01:54.439 footnote. Modern painting, you could argue, starts 00:01:54.439 --> 00:01:57.140 right there with him in Aix -en -Provence. So 00:01:57.140 --> 00:01:58.760 when you hear that, you know, he wasn't just 00:01:58.760 --> 00:02:00.439 another impressionist who kind of stuck around 00:02:00.439 --> 00:02:02.560 a bit longer. If he's the father, what was the 00:02:02.560 --> 00:02:04.760 revolutionary element? What did he actually change 00:02:04.760 --> 00:02:07.280 on the canvas? Well, he introduced entirely new 00:02:07.280 --> 00:02:10.340 ways of representing things. He basically rejected 00:02:10.340 --> 00:02:13.080 the, let's call it the comfortable visual lie 00:02:13.080 --> 00:02:16.259 of academic painting that had dominated for centuries. 00:02:16.439 --> 00:02:18.180 Which was based on? Single point perspective. 00:02:18.219 --> 00:02:20.539 You know, that fixed artificial window onto the 00:02:20.539 --> 00:02:24.340 world. Cezanne deliberately broke that. He started 00:02:24.340 --> 00:02:26.659 altering conventional approaches to perspective, 00:02:26.979 --> 00:02:29.879 focusing instead on the underlying permanent 00:02:29.879 --> 00:02:32.840 structure and importantly, the volume of objects. 00:02:33.060 --> 00:02:36.889 He prioritized the formal qualities of art. The 00:02:36.889 --> 00:02:38.969 composition, the balance, the weight of forms 00:02:38.969 --> 00:02:41.909 over just imitating the surface appearance of 00:02:41.909 --> 00:02:44.650 reality. His big goal really was to take the 00:02:44.650 --> 00:02:46.969 discoveries about light and color made by the 00:02:46.969 --> 00:02:49.449 Impressionists. Right. Their vibrant palettes. 00:02:49.509 --> 00:02:51.729 And impose a kind of classical solid structure 00:02:51.729 --> 00:02:54.199 onto it. So it wasn't just about capturing the 00:02:54.199 --> 00:02:56.340 fleeting color of the apple, but maybe this fear 00:02:56.340 --> 00:02:59.580 inside the apple. It's apple -ness. Exactly. 00:02:59.580 --> 00:03:01.960 That's a great way to put it. He famously said 00:03:01.960 --> 00:03:04.080 he wanted to make impressionism something solid 00:03:04.080 --> 00:03:06.919 and lasting like the art in the museums. He wasn't 00:03:06.919 --> 00:03:08.900 trying to just grab a single moment in time. 00:03:09.020 --> 00:03:12.439 He was digging for the enduring truth of an object's 00:03:12.439 --> 00:03:15.229 existence in space. OK, let's unpack some of 00:03:15.229 --> 00:03:16.969 the contradictions in his personal life then, 00:03:17.050 --> 00:03:19.810 because it starts with this really unusual financial 00:03:19.810 --> 00:03:23.169 position for a, quote unquote, struggling artist. 00:03:23.569 --> 00:03:27.009 We often picture post -impressionists as, you 00:03:27.009 --> 00:03:29.530 know, starving in garrets. Right, the Van Gogh 00:03:29.530 --> 00:03:32.050 narrative. But Cezanne had this remarkable financial 00:03:32.050 --> 00:03:34.560 safety net. It's one of the great ironies of 00:03:34.560 --> 00:03:37.280 his story, absolutely. His father, Louis -Auguste 00:03:37.280 --> 00:03:40.419 Cézanne, started out as a milliner making hats, 00:03:40.520 --> 00:03:43.139 but was incredibly shrewd. He pivoted entirely 00:03:43.139 --> 00:03:46.439 and co -founded a successful regional bank, the 00:03:46.439 --> 00:03:48.939 Banque Cézanne et Cabasol. Wow, from hats to 00:03:48.939 --> 00:03:51.340 banking. Yeah, and that immediately put Paul 00:03:51.340 --> 00:03:53.599 in a totally different financial category than 00:03:53.599 --> 00:03:56.500 most of his peers. He had a security that artists 00:03:56.500 --> 00:03:59.060 like Monet, Renoir, or certainly Van Gogh could 00:03:59.060 --> 00:04:01.599 only dream of. It basically allowed him to pursue 00:04:01.599 --> 00:04:04.240 his art for decades without the intense pressure 00:04:04.240 --> 00:04:06.819 of having to sell constantly just to survive. 00:04:07.060 --> 00:04:09.719 That security must have been absolutely crucial, 00:04:09.960 --> 00:04:13.400 especially given the, well... decades of artistic 00:04:13.400 --> 00:04:16.220 rejection he faced, he could absorb the criticism 00:04:16.220 --> 00:04:19.600 without actually starving. Precisely. His father's 00:04:19.600 --> 00:04:22.100 wealth eventually meant Cezanne inherited a huge 00:04:22.100 --> 00:04:24.720 estate. The sources estimate it was around 400 00:04:24.720 --> 00:04:27.180 ,000 francs, which was an enormous sum back then. 00:04:27.560 --> 00:04:30.360 This wealth completely relieved him of financial 00:04:30.360 --> 00:04:33.639 worries later in life. But... And this is the 00:04:33.639 --> 00:04:36.620 key. It did absolutely nothing to soothe the 00:04:36.620 --> 00:04:39.279 intense self -doubt, the social awkwardness, 00:04:39.339 --> 00:04:41.680 the public ridicule he endured for most of his 00:04:41.680 --> 00:04:45.459 career. It was a strange mix, emotional poverty 00:04:45.459 --> 00:04:48.259 alongside financial abundance. And his roots 00:04:48.259 --> 00:04:50.540 were in Aix -en -Provence down south. That really 00:04:50.540 --> 00:04:52.459 laid the foundation for his intellectual life, 00:04:52.600 --> 00:04:54.620 didn't it? Particularly those childhood friendships. 00:04:54.920 --> 00:04:56.420 Oh, definitely. He grew up there, and that's 00:04:56.420 --> 00:04:59.360 where he formed that famous trio, Les Trois Inseparables, 00:04:59.439 --> 00:05:01.199 the Three Inseparables. Sounds very romantic. 00:05:01.620 --> 00:05:04.259 It does. It was Cezanne, Emil Zola, who'd become 00:05:04.259 --> 00:05:06.360 this giant of naturalist literature, of course, 00:05:06.399 --> 00:05:08.839 and Baptiste Mbaye. They formed this incredibly 00:05:08.839 --> 00:05:11.800 tight intellectual bond, reading Homer and Virgil 00:05:11.800 --> 00:05:14.339 together, swimming in the Arc River, debating 00:05:14.339 --> 00:05:17.180 everything from classical philosophy to, you 00:05:17.180 --> 00:05:19.939 know, the latest art trends. That early... grounding 00:05:19.939 --> 00:05:22.040 in the classics definitely informed his later 00:05:22.040 --> 00:05:25.000 ambition to bring that sense of classical permanence 00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:27.660 back into painting. But his father, the banker, 00:05:27.879 --> 00:05:30.100 had a rather different path in mind for his son. 00:05:30.259 --> 00:05:33.420 Oh yes, the traditional, very authoritarian route. 00:05:34.170 --> 00:05:36.550 Louis Gazelle basically demanded that Paul enroll 00:05:36.550 --> 00:05:38.449 in law at the University of Aix -en -Provence 00:05:38.449 --> 00:05:41.430 in 1859. Not exactly the artistic dream. Not 00:05:41.430 --> 00:05:43.310 at all. And the sources make it pretty clear 00:05:43.310 --> 00:05:45.509 that Cezanne actively neglected his law studies. 00:05:45.689 --> 00:05:48.170 He much preferred spending his time doing life 00:05:48.170 --> 00:05:50.569 drawing and writing these passionate, sometimes 00:05:50.569 --> 00:05:53.850 maybe a bit melodramatic poems. The pull towards 00:05:53.850 --> 00:05:56.870 Hart was already just overwhelming that pragmatic 00:05:56.870 --> 00:05:59.589 security of a law career. So Zola encourages 00:05:59.589 --> 00:06:02.129 him and he finally breaks away and heads to Paris 00:06:02.129 --> 00:06:05.939 in 1861. What happened when he actually got there, 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:07.959 to the center of the art world? Did Zola's support 00:06:07.959 --> 00:06:10.939 kind of ease the transition? Not really, no. 00:06:11.199 --> 00:06:13.639 He immediately slammed into the brick wall of 00:06:13.639 --> 00:06:15.800 the French art establishment, the Gatekeepers. 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:18.779 He applied to the super prestigious École des 00:06:18.779 --> 00:06:22.199 Beaux -Arts and was flat out rejected. Ouch. 00:06:22.620 --> 00:06:25.959 Not just once, either. Twice. In 1861 and again 00:06:25.959 --> 00:06:29.439 in 1862. And this rejection apparently deeply 00:06:29.439 --> 00:06:32.160 shook even Zola's own faith in his friend's talent 00:06:32.160 --> 00:06:34.990 for a bit. Zola actually wrote to Bay about how 00:06:34.990 --> 00:06:37.350 Cezanne wanted to just pack up and go straight 00:06:37.350 --> 00:06:39.509 back home after the first refusal. That's devastating. 00:06:39.569 --> 00:06:41.569 It's hard to square that uncertainty with the 00:06:41.569 --> 00:06:44.850 later father of us all figure. Absolutely. But 00:06:44.850 --> 00:06:47.610 again, his father's money provided that crucial 00:06:47.610 --> 00:06:50.209 cushion that allowed him to stay even after the 00:06:50.209 --> 00:06:52.410 rejection. Since he couldn't get into the official 00:06:52.410 --> 00:06:54.430 École, he ended up attending the Free Academy 00:06:54.430 --> 00:06:57.709 Suisse. It was much less rigorous, but it gave 00:06:57.709 --> 00:06:59.889 him unrestricted access to models and drawing 00:06:59.889 --> 00:07:02.250 practice. So he kept working. He kept working. 00:07:02.639 --> 00:07:05.779 spent hours copying masters like Rubens and Michelangelo 00:07:05.779 --> 00:07:09.420 at the Louvre. And crucially, his father, despite 00:07:09.420 --> 00:07:11.819 his disapproval of the art career, secured him 00:07:11.819 --> 00:07:15.560 a monthly stipend, over 150 francs, which was 00:07:15.560 --> 00:07:18.120 enough for basic living expenses. But then his 00:07:18.120 --> 00:07:20.500 personal life throws a massive wrench into the 00:07:20.500 --> 00:07:23.199 works, threatening that financial lifeline entirely. 00:07:23.720 --> 00:07:27.040 It really did. The big conflict blew up in 1878. 00:07:27.759 --> 00:07:30.139 Louis Auguste, the father, discovered Paul's 00:07:30.139 --> 00:07:32.519 long -standing relationship with Hortense Fiquet, 00:07:32.639 --> 00:07:35.720 who was a part -time model. And crucially, he 00:07:35.720 --> 00:07:38.079 discovered their illegitimate son, also named 00:07:38.079 --> 00:07:40.560 Paul, Paul Phils, who had actually been born 00:07:40.560 --> 00:07:43.480 six years earlier, back in 1872. And Cezanne 00:07:43.480 --> 00:07:45.980 had kept this a secret? Completely secret. For 00:07:45.980 --> 00:07:48.959 years. Precisely to avoid his very conservative 00:07:48.959 --> 00:07:51.220 father's wrath. And the patriarch did not react 00:07:51.220 --> 00:07:54.540 well, I take it? Not well at all. Swiftly, punitively, 00:07:54.540 --> 00:07:57.680 he cut Paul's monthly allowance in half. Suddenly, 00:07:57.680 --> 00:07:59.639 Cezanne found himself in a genuine financial 00:07:59.639 --> 00:08:02.740 pinch for the first time in his life. He actually 00:08:02.740 --> 00:08:05.759 had to beg Zola for help. Now, eventually, the 00:08:05.759 --> 00:08:08.079 father did restore some of the funds, but that 00:08:08.079 --> 00:08:10.220 whole episode just perfectly underscores the 00:08:10.220 --> 00:08:13.180 constant tension in Cezanne's life. This pull 00:08:13.180 --> 00:08:15.660 between the freedom his money gave him and the 00:08:15.660 --> 00:08:17.879 emotional constriction imposed by his family, 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:20.779 by society. He had the means to paint, but he 00:08:20.779 --> 00:08:23.360 had to hide the actual life he was living, the 00:08:23.360 --> 00:08:26.110 life he was sometimes painting from. Okay, let's 00:08:26.110 --> 00:08:28.589 shift to the evolution of his style. Starting 00:08:28.589 --> 00:08:30.689 with that initial phase, often called the dark 00:08:30.689 --> 00:08:35.289 period, roughly 1861 to 1870, and the Cezanne 00:08:35.289 --> 00:08:38.909 from this period, well, he's almost unrecognizable 00:08:38.909 --> 00:08:40.870 compared to the later work, isn't he? It's a 00:08:40.870 --> 00:08:43.669 really stunning contrast. This early period was 00:08:43.669 --> 00:08:46.649 all about thick, almost aggressive paint application 00:08:46.649 --> 00:08:49.350 and subject matter, driven by pure raw emotion 00:08:49.350 --> 00:08:51.909 rather than careful observation. He was soaking 00:08:51.909 --> 00:08:54.169 up influences from the drama of romanticism, 00:08:54.210 --> 00:08:56.129 you think of Delacroix, and also the sort of 00:08:56.129 --> 00:08:58.250 grounded reality of Courbet. And the look. Very 00:08:58.250 --> 00:09:00.750 high contrast canvases, dominated by dark tones, 00:09:00.909 --> 00:09:03.549 lots of pure black, deep browns, murky grays, 00:09:03.549 --> 00:09:05.570 really somber stuff. And the sources mention 00:09:05.570 --> 00:09:07.870 a specific technique he used then that sounds 00:09:07.870 --> 00:09:11.250 almost, well, physically forceful. It was incredibly 00:09:11.250 --> 00:09:14.730 physical. He often used a palette knife. slapping 00:09:14.730 --> 00:09:16.990 the paint on in these massive, thick impasto 00:09:16.990 --> 00:09:20.009 strokes. He later actually referred to this phase 00:09:20.009 --> 00:09:24.330 using a pretty coarse term, uncuillade. It's 00:09:24.330 --> 00:09:26.389 a bit vulgar. Suggests a kind of ostentatious 00:09:26.389 --> 00:09:29.429 virility or a really aggressive, masculine way 00:09:29.429 --> 00:09:31.769 of applying paint, almost like he was attacking 00:09:31.769 --> 00:09:33.590 the canvas. That makes sense, thinking about 00:09:33.590 --> 00:09:36.090 the subject matter from that time. The sources 00:09:36.090 --> 00:09:38.570 describe it as having demonic, erotic content. 00:09:38.690 --> 00:09:41.990 Why so dark? Well, it likely reflects the really... 00:09:42.350 --> 00:09:44.549 turbulent frustrated emotional state he was in 00:09:44.549 --> 00:09:46.610 back then you know the rejections from the salon 00:09:46.610 --> 00:09:48.850 the constant conflict with his father his own 00:09:48.850 --> 00:09:51.669 intense self -doubt about his talent he was painting 00:09:51.669 --> 00:09:54.480 scenes of Passion, violence, things that were 00:09:54.480 --> 00:09:56.519 purely expressive coming from inside. Like specific 00:09:56.519 --> 00:09:58.879 examples. Yeah, look at works like The Abduction 00:09:58.879 --> 00:10:01.879 from 1867 or even more starkly The Murder from 00:10:01.879 --> 00:10:04.919 around 1867 to 1870. It's exactly what it sounds 00:10:04.919 --> 00:10:08.580 like. This dark, brutal scene of one man stabbing 00:10:08.580 --> 00:10:11.320 a woman while an accomplice holds her down. These 00:10:11.320 --> 00:10:13.620 paintings are driven entirely by internal psychological 00:10:13.620 --> 00:10:16.600 turmoil. They completely lack that measured, 00:10:16.799 --> 00:10:19.580 calm, objective analysis that would define his 00:10:19.580 --> 00:10:23.379 mature work later on. Okay, so that raw dark 00:10:23.379 --> 00:10:25.940 energy eventually gives way to the famous turning 00:10:25.940 --> 00:10:30.029 point. the Impressionist turn, around 1870, 1878. 00:10:30.269 --> 00:10:32.129 And the key figure here, the sort of artistic 00:10:32.129 --> 00:10:35.649 mentor, is Camille Pissarro. Pissarro was absolutely 00:10:35.649 --> 00:10:37.509 essential. You can't overstate his importance 00:10:37.509 --> 00:10:39.950 for Cézanne. Cézanne's whole artistic identity 00:10:39.950 --> 00:10:42.269 was basically transformed through the extensive 00:10:42.269 --> 00:10:44.990 time he spent working alongside Pissarro, mostly 00:10:44.990 --> 00:10:47.850 in Pontoise and Aversois, just outside Paris. 00:10:48.090 --> 00:10:50.269 And Cézanne knew it, right? Oh, absolutely. He 00:10:50.269 --> 00:10:52.590 revered Pissarro. He called him God the Father, 00:10:52.690 --> 00:10:54.409 which tells you something, and later acknowledged 00:10:54.409 --> 00:10:57.320 we all stem from Pissarro. the depth of his gratitude. 00:10:57.639 --> 00:10:59.460 Pizarro essentially rescued him from that heavy 00:10:59.460 --> 00:11:01.840 emotional expressionism of the dark period. So 00:11:01.840 --> 00:11:04.840 how did Pizarro actually change Cezanne's process? 00:11:04.960 --> 00:11:06.700 It sounds like it was more than just suggesting 00:11:06.700 --> 00:11:08.519 brighter colors. It was a complete technical 00:11:08.519 --> 00:11:11.179 revolution for Cezanne. Yes, Pizarro persuaded 00:11:11.179 --> 00:11:13.399 him to abandon the nemi -darks and dramatically 00:11:13.399 --> 00:11:15.960 lighten his palette, embracing the primary colors 00:11:15.960 --> 00:11:18.500 red, yellow, blue used by the Impressionists. 00:11:18.980 --> 00:11:22.259 But the really crucial shift was structural. 00:11:22.500 --> 00:11:26.070 How so? Academic art. traditionally defined shapes 00:11:26.070 --> 00:11:28.509 using lines. You draw an outline and you color 00:11:28.509 --> 00:11:31.250 it in, basically. Pizarro taught Cezanne something 00:11:31.250 --> 00:11:34.200 radical. Define shapes and volume only through 00:11:34.200 --> 00:11:36.759 the gradation of color, of tonal values. Okay, 00:11:36.820 --> 00:11:39.720 defining shape with tone, not line. What does 00:11:39.720 --> 00:11:41.799 that actually look like on the canvas? It means 00:11:41.799 --> 00:11:43.980 the entire painting becomes this field of carefully 00:11:43.980 --> 00:11:47.120 modulated patches of color. If you want, say, 00:11:47.299 --> 00:11:50.100 a sphere to look round and turn in space, you 00:11:50.100 --> 00:11:52.480 don't draw a circle and shade inside it. Instead, 00:11:52.600 --> 00:11:54.539 you put a small stroke of a slightly darker, 00:11:54.679 --> 00:11:56.559 maybe cooler color right next to a stroke of 00:11:56.559 --> 00:11:59.340 a slightly lighter, warmer color. Ah, the juxtaposition. 00:11:59.559 --> 00:12:02.429 Exactly. The interaction, the contrast between 00:12:02.429 --> 00:12:05.149 those two tones creates the optical illusion 00:12:05.149 --> 00:12:08.830 of volume and form. It was this huge leap from 00:12:08.830 --> 00:12:11.009 thinking like a draftsman to thinking purely 00:12:11.009 --> 00:12:13.610 like a painter. And it immediately got rid of 00:12:13.610 --> 00:12:16.269 that heavy, almost leaden feel of his earlier 00:12:16.269 --> 00:12:18.970 dark paintings. But even with this fundamental 00:12:18.970 --> 00:12:21.950 breakthrough, the public and the critics. They 00:12:21.950 --> 00:12:24.950 remained viciously hostile. Oh, absolutely. The 00:12:24.950 --> 00:12:27.230 official Solana Perry just kept rejecting him 00:12:27.230 --> 00:12:29.789 year after year. And even when he participated 00:12:29.789 --> 00:12:32.029 in the first Impressionist group exhibition in 00:12:32.029 --> 00:12:35.710 1874, showing work with his new lighter palette, 00:12:35.970 --> 00:12:39.470 it was met with intense. The sources use words 00:12:39.470 --> 00:12:42.210 like indignation and derision. He seems to have 00:12:42.210 --> 00:12:44.350 been a real lightning rod for scandal. Tell us 00:12:44.350 --> 00:12:46.149 about some of the specific critiques from those 00:12:46.149 --> 00:12:48.230 Impressionist shows. His work just seemed to 00:12:48.230 --> 00:12:50.389 provoke people like nothing else. Take a modern 00:12:50.389 --> 00:12:53.850 Olympia from 1873 -74. It was his own take on 00:12:53.850 --> 00:12:56.190 Manet's already provocative painting, and it 00:12:56.190 --> 00:12:58.350 caused a huge sensation even within the avant 00:12:58.350 --> 00:13:00.509 -garde circle itself. And the critics. Ruthless. 00:13:01.110 --> 00:13:03.700 Especially about his portraits. There's a famous 00:13:03.700 --> 00:13:06.059 example, his portrait of Victor Choquet from 00:13:06.059 --> 00:13:10.100 1876 -77. Louis Leroy, who was a very prominent, 00:13:10.179 --> 00:13:14.039 very conservative critic. The same guy who inadvertently 00:13:14.039 --> 00:13:16.539 coined the term Impressionism as an insult. Right. 00:13:16.860 --> 00:13:20.019 Leroy absolutely savaged Cezanne's contribution 00:13:20.019 --> 00:13:23.080 to the third Impressionist exhibition in 1877. 00:13:23.379 --> 00:13:25.740 This is where that infamous yellow fever line 00:13:25.740 --> 00:13:28.039 comes from. That's the one. Leroy attacked the 00:13:28.039 --> 00:13:29.879 showcase portrait, claiming the sitter's head 00:13:29.879 --> 00:13:32.679 looked the color of an old boot. OK, fair enough. 00:13:32.779 --> 00:13:35.309 Maybe harsh, but. But then he takes it. way further 00:13:35.309 --> 00:13:38.289 he escalated the absurdity suggesting the painting 00:13:38.289 --> 00:13:40.090 was so offensive it could actually give a pregnant 00:13:40.090 --> 00:13:42.570 woman a shock and cause yellow fever in the fruit 00:13:42.570 --> 00:13:45.450 of her womb wow that's that's beyond art criticism 00:13:45.450 --> 00:13:48.350 it's visceral hatred directed at the surface 00:13:48.350 --> 00:13:51.549 texture and color choices Cezanne's lack of smooth, 00:13:51.649 --> 00:13:54.649 conventional finish wasn't seen as radical, formal 00:13:54.649 --> 00:13:57.610 experimentation. It was seen as sheer incompetence, 00:13:57.629 --> 00:14:01.450 an insult. And that exhibition, 1877, that was 00:14:01.450 --> 00:14:02.789 it. That was the last time he ever showed with 00:14:02.789 --> 00:14:04.929 the Impressionists. He basically withdrew entirely 00:14:04.929 --> 00:14:07.350 from the public art scene for decades after that. 00:14:07.450 --> 00:14:09.350 So the rejection wasn't just professional. It 00:14:09.350 --> 00:14:11.549 was social, too. And it became deeply personal, 00:14:11.710 --> 00:14:13.850 didn't it? Which leads us to that painful break 00:14:13.850 --> 00:14:15.850 with Emile Zola. Yeah, this is really tragic 00:14:15.850 --> 00:14:18.350 because Zola had been his earliest and most steadfast 00:14:18.350 --> 00:14:21.200 champion. But the friendship started fray as 00:14:21.200 --> 00:14:23.940 Zola achieved just astronomical success. He became 00:14:23.940 --> 00:14:26.440 incredibly wealthy, built this grand summer home 00:14:26.440 --> 00:14:29.659 in Médon near Paris. Cézanne, meanwhile, remained 00:14:29.659 --> 00:14:32.620 solitary, famously awkward socially, living this 00:14:32.620 --> 00:14:35.000 very unassuming life back down south in Provence, 00:14:35.059 --> 00:14:37.639 just consumed by his art and his self -doubt. 00:14:37.980 --> 00:14:40.840 The stark contrast between Zola's glittering, 00:14:40.840 --> 00:14:43.879 secure urban triumph and Cézanne's quiet rural 00:14:43.879 --> 00:14:47.019 struggle, it just fueled Cézanne's own feelings 00:14:47.019 --> 00:14:49.759 of inadequacy. And then Zola, maybe without meaning 00:14:49.759 --> 00:14:52.100 to, delivered the final psychological blow using 00:14:52.100 --> 00:14:56.259 his own weapon, literature. Exactly. In 1886, 00:14:56.559 --> 00:14:59.360 Zola published his novel Leuph, which translates 00:14:59.360 --> 00:15:03.059 as The Masterpiece or The Work of Art. The book's 00:15:03.059 --> 00:15:05.700 central character is Claude Lantier, a painter 00:15:05.700 --> 00:15:08.779 who is ultimately a failure. He's suicidal, unable 00:15:08.779 --> 00:15:11.039 to translate his ambitious artistic vision into 00:15:11.039 --> 00:15:14.639 reality, into realization, that key Cezanne term. 00:15:14.970 --> 00:15:17.210 He just can't capture the truth he sees. And 00:15:17.210 --> 00:15:20.169 Cezanne saw himself in this character. Deeply. 00:15:20.429 --> 00:15:22.529 Even though Zola insisted it wasn't a direct 00:15:22.529 --> 00:15:25.129 portrait, Cezanne recognized so many details. 00:15:25.350 --> 00:15:27.490 The failed ambitions, the provincial background, 00:15:27.710 --> 00:15:30.029 the specific artistic struggles. He basically 00:15:30.029 --> 00:15:32.309 saw his own deepest, most painful insecurities 00:15:32.309 --> 00:15:34.850 laid bare and judged his fictional failure. How 00:15:34.850 --> 00:15:37.470 did he react to Zola? He sent Zola a very short, 00:15:37.549 --> 00:15:39.309 very formal note, just thanking him for sending 00:15:39.309 --> 00:15:41.509 the book. And for a long time, art historians 00:15:41.509 --> 00:15:44.590 claimed that Was it contact ceased forever right 00:15:44.590 --> 00:15:46.690 then, a complete and sudden rupture? But the 00:15:46.690 --> 00:15:48.909 sources suggest it's more complicated. Yeah, 00:15:48.990 --> 00:15:50.870 later discovered letters show that the truth 00:15:50.870 --> 00:15:52.929 is maybe a bit more nuanced and possibly even 00:15:52.929 --> 00:15:55.909 sadder. Well, the letters suggest that some form 00:15:55.909 --> 00:15:57.909 of communication actually did continue for a 00:15:57.909 --> 00:15:59.990 while after the book came out. So the official 00:15:59.990 --> 00:16:02.429 break wasn't quite as clean or instantaneous 00:16:02.429 --> 00:16:04.990 as the legend suggests, but the psychological 00:16:04.990 --> 00:16:08.029 damage was done. It was irrevocable. Zola had 00:16:08.029 --> 00:16:11.029 essentially diagnosed and then published Cezanne's 00:16:11.029 --> 00:16:13.730 most private internal struggle, confirming his 00:16:13.730 --> 00:16:16.490 deepest fear, that he was in fact a failure. 00:16:16.690 --> 00:16:19.070 The emotional core of the friendship, that deep 00:16:19.070 --> 00:16:22.519 trust, was just shattered. Cézanne retreated 00:16:22.519 --> 00:16:24.659 even further into himself and into Provence after 00:16:24.659 --> 00:16:27.740 that. And that same pivotal year, 1886, is also 00:16:27.740 --> 00:16:30.100 when he finally married Hortense Fiquet. This 00:16:30.100 --> 00:16:32.179 also sounds like it was more pragmatic than romantic. 00:16:32.500 --> 00:16:34.539 Absolutely. Pragmatic seems to be the consensus. 00:16:34.799 --> 00:16:37.379 The sources consistently paint a picture of a 00:16:37.379 --> 00:16:39.700 quite strained relationship. Cézanne was often 00:16:39.700 --> 00:16:41.600 described as being almost phobic about being 00:16:41.600 --> 00:16:44.559 touched, very reserved emotionally. He didn't 00:16:44.559 --> 00:16:46.960 marry Hortense out of some grand passion. So 00:16:46.960 --> 00:16:50.480 why then? He married her specifically to legitimize 00:16:50.480 --> 00:16:53.090 their son. Paul Fils, who was 14 years old by 00:16:53.090 --> 00:16:56.190 then, and whom Cézanne adored. This act provided 00:16:56.190 --> 00:16:58.870 a kind of domestic stability, just as his father 00:16:58.870 --> 00:17:02.190 died later that same year. And his father's death, 00:17:02.269 --> 00:17:04.970 of course, finally secured him that massive inheritance, 00:17:05.190 --> 00:17:08.750 stabilizing Cézanne's finances permanently. So 00:17:08.750 --> 00:17:11.549 by the end of 1886, he was free, materially at 00:17:11.549 --> 00:17:14.430 least, to pursue his incredibly difficult, almost 00:17:14.430 --> 00:17:17.549 impossible artistic quest in the relative solitude 00:17:17.549 --> 00:17:21.710 of Provence. So with that financial freedom finally 00:17:21.710 --> 00:17:24.150 secured, and that physical distance from the 00:17:24.150 --> 00:17:26.970 often judgmental Parisian art world, Cézanne 00:17:26.970 --> 00:17:29.450 really entered his mature period. And this is 00:17:29.450 --> 00:17:31.329 where he truly becomes the philosopher of vision 00:17:31.329 --> 00:17:34.160 we think of. As we touched on earlier, his goal 00:17:34.160 --> 00:17:37.099 was incredibly profound. I want to make him impressionism, 00:17:37.180 --> 00:17:39.079 something solid and lasting like the art in the 00:17:39.079 --> 00:17:41.680 museums. Right. He wanted to fuse the ephemeral, 00:17:41.680 --> 00:17:43.460 the fleeting light the impressionist captured 00:17:43.460 --> 00:17:45.700 with the eternal, the durable geometry you might 00:17:45.700 --> 00:17:47.519 see in someone like Poussin, a classical master 00:17:47.519 --> 00:17:50.240 he admired. And this quest led to his most famous, 00:17:50.279 --> 00:17:52.140 but also probably his most misunderstood piece 00:17:52.140 --> 00:17:55.339 of advice. Ah, yes. The infamous geometry quote. 00:17:56.220 --> 00:17:58.660 Given to the younger painter Emile Bernard in 00:17:58.660 --> 00:18:02.400 a letter in 1904. treat nature according to cylinder, 00:18:02.539 --> 00:18:05.539 sphere, and cone, and put the whole in perspective. 00:18:05.960 --> 00:18:09.059 Why has that one line caused so much confusion 00:18:09.059 --> 00:18:12.039 over the years? Mostly because the next generation, 00:18:12.240 --> 00:18:14.299 particularly the cubists, figures like Albert 00:18:14.299 --> 00:18:16.839 Gleises and Jean Metzinger, they really seized 00:18:16.839 --> 00:18:19.460 upon that phrase, and they frequently misused 00:18:19.460 --> 00:18:21.720 it, taking it as a kind of cold, formalistic 00:18:21.720 --> 00:18:23.619 instruction manual. How did they interpret it? 00:18:23.869 --> 00:18:26.410 They saw it as a direct order to mechanically 00:18:26.410 --> 00:18:28.829 reduce nature to these basic geometric shapes. 00:18:29.009 --> 00:18:31.630 You know, chop up forms, analyze them, and place 00:18:31.630 --> 00:18:33.509 them geometrically on the canvas. Almost like 00:18:33.509 --> 00:18:36.210 a blueprint. But the sources we have clarify 00:18:36.210 --> 00:18:39.009 that interpretation. What was Cezanne actually 00:18:39.009 --> 00:18:41.349 trying to get across? He was trying to articulate 00:18:41.349 --> 00:18:43.910 a way of seeing the world. Not just a formula 00:18:43.910 --> 00:18:46.329 for drawing it. He wasn't telling artists to 00:18:46.329 --> 00:18:48.190 literally paint cylinders and cones everywhere. 00:18:48.509 --> 00:18:51.190 He was urging them to recognize that, fundamentally, 00:18:51.509 --> 00:18:54.380 a pair... has the volume of a sphere a tree trunk 00:18:54.380 --> 00:18:56.339 relates to a cylinder, and that understanding 00:18:56.339 --> 00:18:59.200 this underlying geometric truth is key to building 00:18:59.200 --> 00:19:01.700 solid form through color. So it's about perception 00:19:01.700 --> 00:19:05.359 first. Exactly. For Cézanne, if you could grasp... 00:19:05.660 --> 00:19:08.019 that fundamental structure beneath the surface, 00:19:08.279 --> 00:19:11.220 then you could use color modulation, those subtle 00:19:11.220 --> 00:19:14.519 shifts in tone and temperature, to solidify that 00:19:14.519 --> 00:19:17.160 form on the canvas. It was a philosophy about 00:19:17.160 --> 00:19:20.200 finding the truth in perception, not just a technique 00:19:20.200 --> 00:19:23.019 for abstracting things. And this search for underlying 00:19:23.019 --> 00:19:25.619 structure drove his experiments with how our 00:19:25.619 --> 00:19:28.200 eyes actually work, pushing him way beyond the 00:19:28.200 --> 00:19:31.579 academic rules he hated. Absolutely. He was actively, 00:19:31.759 --> 00:19:34.440 almost scientifically, exploring the phenomenon 00:19:34.440 --> 00:19:36.859 of binocular vision. Traditional Renaissance 00:19:36.859 --> 00:19:39.940 perspective assumes a single fixed eye looking 00:19:39.940 --> 00:19:41.940 at the world like looking through a window. Right. 00:19:42.240 --> 00:19:44.299 But our sources really emphasize that Cézanne 00:19:44.299 --> 00:19:46.099 was trying to capture the complexity of having 00:19:46.099 --> 00:19:48.579 two eyes, which see the world from slightly different 00:19:48.579 --> 00:19:50.460 angles and perceive depth slightly differently, 00:19:50.559 --> 00:19:53.619 simultaneously. This intentional shattering of 00:19:53.619 --> 00:19:55.960 the single -point perspective creates an aesthetic 00:19:55.960 --> 00:19:58.400 experience of depth that actually mimics the 00:19:58.400 --> 00:20:00.759 reality of human sight much more closely. How 00:20:00.759 --> 00:20:03.680 does that actually manifest on the canvas? If 00:20:03.680 --> 00:20:05.680 someone listening were standing in front of one 00:20:05.680 --> 00:20:08.380 of his still lifes, how could they spot this 00:20:08.380 --> 00:20:11.480 binocular vision at work? You start noticing 00:20:11.480 --> 00:20:14.640 the deliberate mistakes, the anomalies that aren't 00:20:14.640 --> 00:20:16.960 mistakes at all. For instance, the edge of a 00:20:16.960 --> 00:20:20.000 tabletop might appear to tilt up slightly on 00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:22.299 one side and down slightly on the other, creating 00:20:22.299 --> 00:20:24.519 almost two different horizon lines within the 00:20:24.519 --> 00:20:27.460 same plane. Okay. Or an apple sitting on a plate 00:20:27.460 --> 00:20:30.619 might be painted as if seen from the side, but 00:20:30.619 --> 00:20:32.720 the front edge of that slate might be depicted 00:20:32.720 --> 00:20:35.440 as if you're looking down on it from above, suggesting 00:20:35.440 --> 00:20:37.940 you shifted your viewpoint. He wasn't getting 00:20:37.940 --> 00:20:40.619 it wrong. He was deliberately compressing multiple 00:20:40.619 --> 00:20:43.319 sequential moments of seeing into one single 00:20:43.319 --> 00:20:46.720 cohesive image. He's trying to paint the object 00:20:46.720 --> 00:20:49.660 as it exists in space over time, as our eyes 00:20:49.660 --> 00:20:51.759 naturally scan and interact with it. And this 00:20:51.759 --> 00:20:54.440 complexity, this attempt to capture lived experience, 00:20:54.680 --> 00:20:57.279 is what the philosopher Maurice Merleau -Ponty 00:20:57.279 --> 00:21:00.359 later analyzed so brilliantly, calling it a lived 00:21:00.359 --> 00:21:03.500 perspective. Yes, Merleau -Ponty really provided 00:21:03.500 --> 00:21:05.799 the deepest conceptual framework for understanding 00:21:05.799 --> 00:21:08.539 this. He argued that Cézanne was striving to 00:21:08.539 --> 00:21:12.019 reach a point where sight was also touch. He 00:21:12.019 --> 00:21:13.619 wasn't just painting what the eye registered 00:21:13.619 --> 00:21:16.319 passively. He wanted to paint the object as it 00:21:16.319 --> 00:21:19.380 is experienced by a body moving in space. The 00:21:19.380 --> 00:21:22.039 visual perception and the almost tactile feeling 00:21:22.039 --> 00:21:24.740 of the object's volume and presence had to merge 00:21:24.740 --> 00:21:27.369 to achieve a complete understanding. And this 00:21:27.369 --> 00:21:29.809 helps explain the almost agonizing slowness of 00:21:29.809 --> 00:21:31.910 his working method. It was meticulous to the 00:21:31.910 --> 00:21:34.710 point of obsession. If achieving this deep realization 00:21:34.710 --> 00:21:37.369 was tied to capturing this complex, multi -layered 00:21:37.369 --> 00:21:39.390 perception, well, it simply couldn't be rushed. 00:21:39.630 --> 00:21:42.470 The sources are full of accounts of this. A portrait 00:21:42.470 --> 00:21:45.769 could take incredibly 150 sittings. 150 sessions. 00:21:46.150 --> 00:21:49.349 Yeah. And he frequently regarded his own paintings 00:21:49.349 --> 00:21:52.440 as unfinished. Not necessarily because he was 00:21:52.440 --> 00:21:54.740 dissatisfied, but because he felt the act of 00:21:54.740 --> 00:21:57.279 painting, of perception, was this never -ending 00:21:57.279 --> 00:22:00.400 process of iteration, always getting closer to 00:22:00.400 --> 00:22:03.059 that elusive perfect harmony, that realization. 00:22:03.460 --> 00:22:06.519 He would often delay dating or even signing works 00:22:06.519 --> 00:22:08.960 because he felt he might need to go back, make 00:22:08.960 --> 00:22:11.420 just one more adjustment based on a new sensation. 00:22:11.920 --> 00:22:14.640 So if we try to boil down his process, the sources 00:22:14.640 --> 00:22:17.640 give us Cézanne's own triad of key terms that 00:22:17.640 --> 00:22:20.440 essentially define his method. Aller sur le motif, 00:22:20.759 --> 00:22:23.920 sensation, and realization. Those three terms 00:22:23.920 --> 00:22:25.839 really are the blueprint for his mature work. 00:22:26.240 --> 00:22:29.319 First, Allez sur le motif. This means literally 00:22:29.319 --> 00:22:32.460 to go to the motif. But it's much more than just 00:22:32.460 --> 00:22:34.839 setting up an easel outdoors. The motif isn't 00:22:34.839 --> 00:22:36.720 just a subject like a landscape or a bowl of 00:22:36.720 --> 00:22:39.220 fruit. It's the motivation itself. It implies 00:22:39.220 --> 00:22:41.480 entering into this profound, almost meditative 00:22:41.480 --> 00:22:43.539 relationship with the external objects or scene. 00:22:43.740 --> 00:22:46.000 It requires intense presence and concentration. 00:22:46.380 --> 00:22:48.880 Okay, so engaging deeply with the subject. Then 00:22:48.880 --> 00:22:51.740 comes sensation. Sensation is the absolutely 00:22:51.740 --> 00:22:55.019 critical intermediate step. It's the raw visual 00:22:55.019 --> 00:22:58.119 perception. The sensory data coming in, plus 00:22:58.119 --> 00:23:00.759 the psychological or emotional response that 00:23:00.759 --> 00:23:02.859 the perceived object triggers within the painter. 00:23:03.000 --> 00:23:05.519 He put it very clearly himself. Painting from 00:23:05.519 --> 00:23:08.539 nature does not mean copying the object. It means 00:23:08.539 --> 00:23:11.000 realizing its sensations. So it's subjective. 00:23:11.200 --> 00:23:13.240 It's where the objective world meets the subjective 00:23:13.240 --> 00:23:16.119 self. The color he chose, the way he applied 00:23:16.119 --> 00:23:18.339 the paint became the perfect mediator, the bridge 00:23:18.339 --> 00:23:20.400 between the external reality he was observing 00:23:20.400 --> 00:23:23.019 and his internal personal emotional experience 00:23:23.019 --> 00:23:25.180 of that reality. And finally, the ultimate goal, 00:23:25.319 --> 00:23:28.160 realization. Realization is the culmination. 00:23:28.200 --> 00:23:31.079 It's the crucial demanding act of physical translation, 00:23:31.359 --> 00:23:34.460 the actual painting itself. It's where he tries 00:23:34.460 --> 00:23:36.660 to merge these opposing movements, taking in 00:23:36.660 --> 00:23:38.940 the world, impression, and then giving it back, 00:23:39.000 --> 00:23:42.380 structuring it onto the canvas, expression. Cezanne 00:23:42.380 --> 00:23:44.559 apparently feared failing at this crucial step 00:23:44.559 --> 00:23:47.339 right up until his dying day. It was here that 00:23:47.339 --> 00:23:49.900 the complex, lived perspective gained from the 00:23:49.900 --> 00:23:52.480 motif and his unique personal sensation had to 00:23:52.480 --> 00:23:54.500 be perfectly translated using color modulation 00:23:54.500 --> 00:23:57.000 to achieve that solid sense of volume and structure. 00:23:57.579 --> 00:23:59.759 This was the absolute heart of his lifelong, 00:24:00.059 --> 00:24:02.740 often agonizing artistic struggle. Now, Cezanne 00:24:02.740 --> 00:24:04.700 had certain subjects that he returned to again 00:24:04.700 --> 00:24:06.640 and again, subjects that really allowed him to 00:24:06.640 --> 00:24:09.000 fully explore this meticulous method of realization. 00:24:09.380 --> 00:24:11.240 And we absolutely have to start with the natural 00:24:11.240 --> 00:24:12.839 landmark that became his personal laboratory, 00:24:13.140 --> 00:24:15.460 Mont Saint -Victoire. Ah, yes, the mountain. 00:24:15.930 --> 00:24:18.130 It was his constant companion, his obsession, 00:24:18.230 --> 00:24:20.890 really. The Montaigne Saint -Pictoire, this limestone 00:24:20.890 --> 00:24:22.970 ridge near his home and studio in the hills above 00:24:22.970 --> 00:24:26.069 Equis, was the absolute central theme of his 00:24:26.069 --> 00:24:29.549 mature and final periods. He painted it, sketched 00:24:29.549 --> 00:24:32.309 it, rendered it in watercolor. The sources say 00:24:32.309 --> 00:24:36.339 over 75 times in total. Why this particular mountain? 00:24:36.440 --> 00:24:38.640 Was it just because it was there, the proximity? 00:24:39.079 --> 00:24:41.220 Well, proximity certainly played a huge role, 00:24:41.339 --> 00:24:43.700 you can't deny that. But the sources offer a 00:24:43.700 --> 00:24:46.319 really fascinating, almost modern counterpoint 00:24:46.319 --> 00:24:49.609 to his obsession with timeless permanence. There's 00:24:49.609 --> 00:24:51.869 the suggestion that the initial inspiration for 00:24:51.869 --> 00:24:53.890 the specific series of paintings of the mountaineer 00:24:53.890 --> 00:24:55.990 might have come from the views he saw from the 00:24:55.990 --> 00:24:57.930 window of the newly opened Aix -de -Marseille 00:24:57.930 --> 00:25:00.910 train line. The train line! Yeah, it began operating 00:25:00.910 --> 00:25:02.950 in 1878. So think about that potential irony. 00:25:03.230 --> 00:25:05.630 The painter most dedicated to capturing eternal 00:25:05.630 --> 00:25:08.509 structure possibly being inspired by the fleeting, 00:25:08.650 --> 00:25:11.170 fragmented views from a moving train window, 00:25:11.369 --> 00:25:14.450 the very symbol of modernity's speed. That's 00:25:14.450 --> 00:25:17.410 a fantastic juxtaposition. The blur of modernity 00:25:17.410 --> 00:25:19.690 potentially pushing him hard. to find the underlying 00:25:19.690 --> 00:25:22.549 permanence. Exactly. It might have accelerated 00:25:22.549 --> 00:25:25.230 his desire to dissect and capture its fundamental 00:25:25.230 --> 00:25:27.549 structure. And he approached the mountain not 00:25:27.549 --> 00:25:29.950 just as a painter looking at a pretty view, but 00:25:29.950 --> 00:25:32.890 almost like a geologist. He specifically noted, 00:25:33.009 --> 00:25:35.150 and this is a great quote, in order to paint 00:25:35.150 --> 00:25:37.630 a landscape correctly, I first have to recognize 00:25:37.630 --> 00:25:41.059 the geological stratification. Geological stratification. 00:25:41.079 --> 00:25:43.539 So he was literally thinking about the layers 00:25:43.539 --> 00:25:46.500 of rock, the physical history, the weight beneath 00:25:46.500 --> 00:25:49.440 the surface vegetation. That seems to be exactly 00:25:49.440 --> 00:25:52.039 it. And that's why, especially in his later works, 00:25:52.220 --> 00:25:54.299 the mountain begins to break down into these 00:25:54.299 --> 00:25:57.160 distinct planes of color that seem to stack up, 00:25:57.200 --> 00:26:01.079 recede, and interlock geometrically. He was painting 00:26:01.079 --> 00:26:03.359 its volume, its mass, its geological history, 00:26:03.480 --> 00:26:06.059 all filtered through the lens of his own intense 00:26:06.059 --> 00:26:08.930 sensation. He wasn't painting a postcard. He 00:26:08.930 --> 00:26:10.710 was painting a kind of cross -section of the 00:26:10.710 --> 00:26:13.130 Earth's deep time observed right then and there. 00:26:13.289 --> 00:26:16.289 Amazing. Okay, let's move indoors. His still 00:26:16.289 --> 00:26:19.589 lifes, the apples and oranges, the jugs and cloths, 00:26:19.589 --> 00:26:21.730 are arguably his most famous works, and they're 00:26:21.730 --> 00:26:23.990 legendary for how they disrupt traditional perspective. 00:26:24.490 --> 00:26:26.490 They really are masterpieces of compositional 00:26:26.490 --> 00:26:28.690 engineering, you could say. The key thing to 00:26:28.690 --> 00:26:31.130 remember about his still lifes is that they weren't 00:26:31.130 --> 00:26:34.089 primarily about the objects themselves. the fruit, 00:26:34.190 --> 00:26:36.589 the jugs, the skulls later on. They were about 00:26:36.589 --> 00:26:39.269 the arrangement, the intricate balance of shapes, 00:26:39.490 --> 00:26:42.690 colors, and weights on the two -dimensional canvas 00:26:42.690 --> 00:26:46.450 surface. And to achieve this perfect inner balance, 00:26:46.650 --> 00:26:49.869 he deliberately threw conventional linear perspective 00:26:49.869 --> 00:26:53.029 out the window. You mentioned earlier he would 00:26:53.029 --> 00:26:56.130 sometimes oversize objects. Can you expand on 00:26:56.130 --> 00:26:58.230 that kind of deliberate distortion? How did that 00:26:58.230 --> 00:27:00.670 serve the composition? He would manipulate objects 00:27:00.670 --> 00:27:03.049 in ways that might defy real -world physics, 00:27:03.230 --> 00:27:05.750 but made perfect sense for the painting's internal 00:27:05.750 --> 00:27:09.279 logic. For example, he might paint a pair significantly 00:27:09.279 --> 00:27:11.779 larger than, say, the pottery jug sitting right 00:27:11.779 --> 00:27:14.000 next to it, purely to balance the visual weight 00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:16.220 of the colors or forms in that specific section 00:27:16.220 --> 00:27:19.099 of the canvas. You often see those tilting tabletops 00:27:19.099 --> 00:27:21.359 we mentioned, objects that seem like they should 00:27:21.359 --> 00:27:23.440 be about to fall over but feel perfectly stable 00:27:23.440 --> 00:27:26.000 within the painting structure, or the ellipses 00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:28.279 of jars and bowls that don't quite match up if 00:27:28.279 --> 00:27:31.579 you try to apply strict perspective rules. He 00:27:31.579 --> 00:27:34.119 was using these optical adjustments to create 00:27:34.119 --> 00:27:37.200 a composition that felt more solid. more structurally 00:27:37.200 --> 00:27:40.140 sound as a painting than a simple photorealistic 00:27:40.140 --> 00:27:43.319 copy ever could. And his still lifes took a noticeably 00:27:43.319 --> 00:27:45.460 darker turn towards the very end of his life, 00:27:45.519 --> 00:27:47.359 reflecting his own internal state, didn't they? 00:27:47.539 --> 00:27:51.079 Yes, absolutely. The theme of death, the traditional 00:27:51.079 --> 00:27:54.000 Vanitas theme, emerges really powerfully in his 00:27:54.000 --> 00:27:57.519 final years, roughly from about 1898 to 1905. 00:27:57.859 --> 00:27:59.880 The most famous examples are those paintings 00:27:59.880 --> 00:28:02.539 of skulls, like the Pyramid of Skulls from around 00:28:02.539 --> 00:28:05.440 1901. These works definitely reflect his increasing 00:28:05.440 --> 00:28:08.519 isolation, his bouts of depression, and a growing 00:28:08.519 --> 00:28:11.279 sense of resignation towards mortality, feelings 00:28:11.279 --> 00:28:13.000 that are echoed quite clearly in his letters 00:28:13.000 --> 00:28:15.799 from that time. A morbid subject. It is, but 00:28:15.799 --> 00:28:17.819 there's a fascinating detail about one of those 00:28:17.819 --> 00:28:20.700 skull paintings mentioned in the sources. Emile 00:28:20.700 --> 00:28:23.480 Bernard, who visited him near the end, noted 00:28:23.480 --> 00:28:25.359 that Cezanne was still changing the color and 00:28:25.359 --> 00:28:27.279 the form of the skull painting, almost daily. 00:28:27.839 --> 00:28:30.099 It shows that even with this morbid subject, 00:28:30.299 --> 00:28:32.740 the obsessive quest for realization, for getting 00:28:32.740 --> 00:28:34.940 the sensation just right through color and form, 00:28:35.059 --> 00:28:38.279 never stopped. Beyond the mountain and the fruit 00:28:38.279 --> 00:28:40.980 bowl, there's that other massive, very complex 00:28:40.980 --> 00:28:44.240 body of work. The Bathurst cycle. Ah, the Bathurst, 00:28:44.279 --> 00:28:46.220 yes. This was a huge undertaking, about 140... 00:28:47.130 --> 00:28:48.930 paintings and sketches on this theme throughout 00:28:48.930 --> 00:28:52.049 his career. The Bathers cycle was really Cézanne's 00:28:52.049 --> 00:28:54.690 major attempt to achieve a kind of modern Arcadian 00:28:54.690 --> 00:28:57.410 harmony, consciously echoing classical masters 00:28:57.410 --> 00:28:59.970 he admired, like Poussin. He was trying to unite 00:28:59.970 --> 00:29:02.369 the human figure, often nude, with the landscape 00:29:02.369 --> 00:29:04.549 in a kind of timeless, permanent, almost monumental 00:29:04.549 --> 00:29:07.130 composition. This whole effort culminated, of 00:29:07.130 --> 00:29:08.670 course, in the three large versions of the Great 00:29:08.670 --> 00:29:11.250 Bathers, Les Grands, Benus, which are incredible 00:29:11.250 --> 00:29:14.269 achievements. But there's often a noticeable 00:29:15.269 --> 00:29:17.930 Maybe awkwardness or angularity in the figures 00:29:17.930 --> 00:29:20.569 themselves, which seems to contrast a bit with 00:29:20.569 --> 00:29:23.150 the geometric mastery we see elsewhere. Why is 00:29:23.150 --> 00:29:25.329 that? It's generally thought to be because the 00:29:25.329 --> 00:29:29.150 intensely private, solitary Cezanne really disliked 00:29:29.150 --> 00:29:32.549 having nude models posing in his studio. He found 00:29:32.549 --> 00:29:35.700 it very distracting, uncomfortable. So to create 00:29:35.700 --> 00:29:38.359 these monumental figure compositions, he relied 00:29:38.359 --> 00:29:41.160 almost entirely on his memory, on sketches he'd 00:29:41.160 --> 00:29:43.380 made years earlier in life, drawing classes, 00:29:43.599 --> 00:29:46.119 on photographs, and especially on his deep knowledge 00:29:46.119 --> 00:29:48.619 of figures in old master paintings in the Louvre. 00:29:48.890 --> 00:29:51.089 So he lacked that direct sensation from a living 00:29:51.089 --> 00:29:53.430 model. Exactly. Without that immediate, intense 00:29:53.430 --> 00:29:56.069 observation of a living model, his figures often 00:29:56.069 --> 00:29:58.630 appear somewhat heavy, angular, even a bit stiff. 00:29:58.849 --> 00:30:01.509 They fit into the landscape maybe less organically 00:30:01.509 --> 00:30:03.769 than his apples fit on a tablecloth, but they 00:30:03.769 --> 00:30:05.849 fit structurally, serving the overall geometric 00:30:05.849 --> 00:30:07.750 architecture of the composition he was building. 00:30:08.089 --> 00:30:10.369 Before we move fully into his legacy, we have 00:30:10.369 --> 00:30:12.529 to touch on his revolutionary use of watercolor, 00:30:12.849 --> 00:30:15.250 especially later in life. It apparently even 00:30:15.250 --> 00:30:17.509 influenced his oil technique. That's a really 00:30:17.509 --> 00:30:19.789 important point the sources bring out. In his 00:30:19.789 --> 00:30:22.170 later years, watercolor wasn't just a preparatory 00:30:22.170 --> 00:30:24.910 sketch medium for Cézanne. It became a major 00:30:24.910 --> 00:30:27.890 autonomous form of expression. absolutely equal 00:30:27.890 --> 00:30:30.750 in artistic stature to his oil paintings. He 00:30:30.750 --> 00:30:33.170 used watercolor brilliantly to capture the absolute 00:30:33.170 --> 00:30:35.890 essence of a form, often characterized by leaving 00:30:35.890 --> 00:30:38.710 large areas of the white paper untouched, those 00:30:38.710 --> 00:30:42.390 famous empty spaces flanked by very precise luminous 00:30:42.390 --> 00:30:44.390 patches of color. And this fed back into the 00:30:44.390 --> 00:30:47.980 oils. Yes, profoundly. Critics like Roger Fry 00:30:47.980 --> 00:30:50.259 noted how this watercolor technique translated 00:30:50.259 --> 00:30:52.940 directly back into his late oil paintings. He 00:30:52.940 --> 00:30:54.960 started leaving small patches of the white brimed 00:30:54.960 --> 00:30:57.680 canvas bare between his color strokes, allowing 00:30:57.680 --> 00:30:59.700 the light of the canvas itself to shine through. 00:31:00.140 --> 00:31:02.680 This gives his final oils, especially the landscapes, 00:31:02.920 --> 00:31:06.079 an incredible luminosity, a kind of airy lightness, 00:31:06.119 --> 00:31:09.680 despite their solid structure. Okay, so the story 00:31:09.680 --> 00:31:12.039 is Cezanne's reputation. It's almost unbelievable 00:31:12.039 --> 00:31:14.670 when you track it. Decades of obscurity and public 00:31:14.670 --> 00:31:16.829 ridicule followed by this complete explosive 00:31:16.829 --> 00:31:19.250 posthumous triumph that basically redirected 00:31:19.250 --> 00:31:22.009 the entire course of 20th century art. And his 00:31:22.009 --> 00:31:24.309 slow ascent really began with one key figure. 00:31:24.650 --> 00:31:26.750 That would be the gallery owner and, well, very 00:31:26.750 --> 00:31:29.869 shrewd art dealer, Ambroise Vollard. He was the 00:31:29.869 --> 00:31:32.410 one who gave Cézanne his very first solo exhibition 00:31:32.410 --> 00:31:35.829 in Paris, right? In 1895. Exactly. Vollard took 00:31:35.829 --> 00:31:38.369 a huge gamble, actually. He tracked Cézanne down 00:31:38.369 --> 00:31:41.049 an Esque, bought a massive batch of canvases 00:31:41.049 --> 00:31:43.670 practically sight unseen, and put on this show 00:31:43.670 --> 00:31:46.819 of about 50 works. This was the absolute turning 00:31:46.819 --> 00:31:48.839 point, the inflection point for his reputation. 00:31:49.160 --> 00:31:52.180 Who was buying initially? Interestingly, the 00:31:52.180 --> 00:31:54.980 very first people to buy were his own, more established 00:31:54.980 --> 00:31:58.900 impressionist peers, Monet, Degas, Renoir. They 00:31:58.900 --> 00:32:01.140 recognized his genius immediately, even if the 00:32:01.140 --> 00:32:03.240 public didn't. They were paying relatively small 00:32:03.240 --> 00:32:05.859 sums at first, but Villar, being a savvy dealer, 00:32:06.079 --> 00:32:08.079 quickly saw the long -term market potential. 00:32:08.559 --> 00:32:10.319 And the prices for Cézanne's work started to 00:32:10.319 --> 00:32:12.819 climb steadily, eventually hundredfold, though 00:32:12.819 --> 00:32:14.819 Cézanne himself remained pretty aloof from all 00:32:14.819 --> 00:32:17.380 the market buzz. And that recognition from fellow 00:32:17.380 --> 00:32:19.740 artists is made powerfully visible in that famous 00:32:19.740 --> 00:32:23.059 1901 painting, Homage à Cézanne. Right, by Maurice 00:32:23.059 --> 00:32:26.180 Teny. That painting is essentially a group portrait, 00:32:26.299 --> 00:32:28.400 almost like a group selfie of the Parisian avant 00:32:28.400 --> 00:32:31.400 -garde, explicitly acknowledging Cézanne as their 00:32:31.400 --> 00:32:34.140 master. It shows this circle of important... 00:32:34.400 --> 00:32:37.400 Artists and critics, people like Redon, Sérusier, 00:32:37.700 --> 00:32:41.119 Bonnard, Vuillard, and Voullard himself, all 00:32:41.119 --> 00:32:43.660 gathered reverently in Vollard's gallery, paying 00:32:43.660 --> 00:32:46.079 respects to one of Cézanne's still lifes, the 00:32:46.079 --> 00:32:47.980 still life with bowl of fruit, which is on an 00:32:47.980 --> 00:32:50.819 easel. It really cemented his status as a kind 00:32:50.819 --> 00:32:52.599 of spiritual leader for the next generation, 00:32:52.819 --> 00:32:55.940 even before he died. But the truly seismic shift, 00:32:56.059 --> 00:32:58.359 the one that really made him the undisputed father 00:32:58.359 --> 00:33:00.960 of us all, happened right after his death in 00:33:00.960 --> 00:33:04.119 1906. The posthumous validation was incredibly 00:33:04.119 --> 00:33:07.240 swift and dramatic. Just one year later, in 1907, 00:33:07.440 --> 00:33:09.400 there were two major retrospectives in Paris 00:33:09.400 --> 00:33:11.740 that changed everything. One was at the Bernheim 00:33:11.740 --> 00:33:14.380 June Gallery, and the other was a massive, really 00:33:14.380 --> 00:33:17.160 definitive showing of almost 60 works at the 00:33:17.160 --> 00:33:19.119 Salon d 'Automne. And these shows were crucial. 00:33:19.519 --> 00:33:21.940 Absolutely mandatory viewing for all the young, 00:33:21.980 --> 00:33:24.579 ambitious artists in Keres at the time. These 00:33:24.579 --> 00:33:26.859 exhibitions provided the direct visual evidence, 00:33:27.039 --> 00:33:30.019 the concentrated dose of Cézanne's vision that 00:33:30.019 --> 00:33:32.380 fueled the next great revolution in art. People 00:33:32.380 --> 00:33:35.539 like Braque, Duran, Kandinsky, Matisse, and maybe 00:33:35.539 --> 00:33:38.180 most importantly, Picasso. They all saw these 00:33:38.180 --> 00:33:40.279 shows. And this brings us right back to that 00:33:40.279 --> 00:33:43.579 explicit debt owed by the cubists. How exactly 00:33:43.579 --> 00:33:46.380 did Cézanne's work become the sort of technical 00:33:46.380 --> 00:33:49.670 manual for cubism? It was really Cezanne's systematic 00:33:49.670 --> 00:33:52.470 approach to simplifying forms down to their underlying 00:33:52.470 --> 00:33:55.730 geometry, combined with his radical use of multiple 00:33:55.730 --> 00:33:57.930 simultaneous viewpoints on the same subject. 00:33:58.329 --> 00:34:00.650 That's what directly inspired Cubism's signature 00:34:00.650 --> 00:34:03.430 fracturing of form and space. Picasso himself 00:34:03.430 --> 00:34:06.029 confirmed the debt, very clearly stating, Cezanne, 00:34:06.049 --> 00:34:08.789 Cezanne was the father of all of us. They looked 00:34:08.789 --> 00:34:10.590 at his methodical way of building paintings, 00:34:10.769 --> 00:34:12.829 not primarily as a way to capture sensation, 00:34:13.110 --> 00:34:15.590 as Cezanne intended, but as a formal technique. 00:34:16.059 --> 00:34:18.699 to analyze and reconstruct space itself. And 00:34:18.699 --> 00:34:20.760 the Cubists themselves were very conscious about 00:34:20.760 --> 00:34:22.780 recording this lineage, weren't they? Oh, yes. 00:34:23.019 --> 00:34:26.880 Very explicitly. In 1912, two leading Cubist 00:34:26.880 --> 00:34:29.659 painters and theorists, Albert Gleises and Jean 00:34:29.659 --> 00:34:32.039 Metzinger, published their defining treatise, 00:34:32.079 --> 00:34:36.400 simply titled Du Cubisme on Cubism. And in it, 00:34:36.420 --> 00:34:38.500 they directly credit Cézanne with teaching them 00:34:38.500 --> 00:34:41.360 the most important lesson of all, that changing 00:34:41.360 --> 00:34:43.679 the coloring of an object fundamentally changes 00:34:43.679 --> 00:34:46.039 its structure. and that the goal of painting 00:34:46.039 --> 00:34:49.059 was now about giving plastic form to our nature, 00:34:49.179 --> 00:34:52.159 moving completely away from just imitating appearances. 00:34:52.559 --> 00:34:54.900 And incredibly, his influence didn't just stay 00:34:54.900 --> 00:34:57.159 within painting. It actually leaped across genres 00:34:57.159 --> 00:34:59.800 entirely. We see echoes in literature, too. This 00:34:59.800 --> 00:35:01.460 is one of those fascinating discoveries from 00:35:01.460 --> 00:35:03.519 the sources, I think. Ernest Hemingway, the great 00:35:03.519 --> 00:35:05.760 American novelist, famously compared his own 00:35:05.760 --> 00:35:07.880 stripped -down prose style directly to Cezanne's 00:35:07.880 --> 00:35:10.099 landscapes. Hemingway said he was trying to achieve 00:35:10.099 --> 00:35:12.199 what he called structural depth in his writing. 00:35:12.320 --> 00:35:14.760 He believed that if he wrote simply, declarative 00:35:14.760 --> 00:35:17.639 true sentences and deliberately left out most 00:35:17.639 --> 00:35:19.679 of the overt emotional description. Your reader 00:35:19.679 --> 00:35:22.539 would feel it anyway. Exactly. That the underlying 00:35:22.539 --> 00:35:25.380 structural truth of the story, the emotional 00:35:25.380 --> 00:35:28.400 subtext, would resonate much more powerfully 00:35:28.400 --> 00:35:30.659 beneath the surface, like the bulk of an iceberg. 00:35:30.960 --> 00:35:33.619 So just like Cezanne might leave patches of canvas 00:35:33.619 --> 00:35:36.280 bare, Hemingway left the emotional explanation 00:35:36.280 --> 00:35:39.480 bare, trusting the reader or the structure itself 00:35:39.480 --> 00:35:42.039 to convey the weight. Precisely. Hemingway's 00:35:42.039 --> 00:35:44.519 famous iceberg theory. The idea that you only 00:35:44.519 --> 00:35:46.639 show one -eighth of the story, the part above 00:35:46.639 --> 00:35:48.800 the water, is essentially Cézanne's technique 00:35:48.800 --> 00:35:52.039 applied to writing. Use the visible forms, simple 00:35:52.039 --> 00:35:55.000 sentences, geometric shapes, to imply the massive 00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:57.760 unseen structure and weight beneath. The emotional 00:35:57.760 --> 00:36:00.429 truth... the object's volume. It's about power 00:36:00.429 --> 00:36:02.630 through omission and underlying structure. This 00:36:02.630 --> 00:36:05.409 radical shift in artistic perception, this influence, 00:36:05.570 --> 00:36:07.889 is mirrored in an almost unbelievable seismic 00:36:07.889 --> 00:36:10.369 shift in his financial value, which is maybe 00:36:10.369 --> 00:36:13.570 the ultimate, if crudest, measure of his complete 00:36:13.570 --> 00:36:16.289 reversal in public opinion. It is truly staggering 00:36:16.289 --> 00:36:18.989 when you track the journey financially. The man 00:36:18.989 --> 00:36:21.250 who struggled for decades to sell paintings for 00:36:21.250 --> 00:36:23.869 maybe a few hundred francs now commands prices 00:36:23.869 --> 00:36:25.969 that define the peak of the global art market. 00:36:26.699 --> 00:36:29.860 Just a few examples. In 1999, his still -life 00:36:29.860 --> 00:36:33.139 rideau, Crouchant et Compoutier, sold for $61 00:36:33.139 --> 00:36:36.440 .5 million a record for a still life at the time. 00:36:36.619 --> 00:36:38.559 Incredible. Then jump to his figure paintings. 00:36:39.239 --> 00:36:41.940 One version of the card players, a subject from 00:36:41.940 --> 00:36:44.519 his more popular earlier period, sold privately 00:36:44.519 --> 00:36:47.360 in 2011 to the royal family of Qatar for an estimated 00:36:47.360 --> 00:36:49.940 price somewhere between $250 million and $300 00:36:49.940 --> 00:36:52.900 million. A painting that might have been ridiculed 00:36:52.900 --> 00:36:55.659 or ignored in the 1870s now fetches upwards of 00:36:55.659 --> 00:36:58.159 a quarter of a billion dollars. It's mind -boggling. 00:36:58.219 --> 00:37:01.219 And just to anchor the value of his iconic landscapes, 00:37:01.480 --> 00:37:04.739 in 2022, a beautiful version of La Montagne Saint 00:37:04.739 --> 00:37:06.880 -Victoire was sold at auction for $138 million. 00:37:07.579 --> 00:37:09.920 The man who literally withdrew from the world 00:37:09.920 --> 00:37:12.079 because he felt it didn't understand him now 00:37:12.079 --> 00:37:13.960 commands the most massive investment from that 00:37:13.960 --> 00:37:16.239 very world. And maybe the ultimate sign of this 00:37:16.239 --> 00:37:18.079 complete turnaround takes us right back to where 00:37:18.079 --> 00:37:20.320 we started, his hometown, Aix -en -Provence. 00:37:20.710 --> 00:37:23.190 Oh, the irony there is just incredibly rich. 00:37:23.670 --> 00:37:26.949 Remember, back in 1903, the local press and many 00:37:26.949 --> 00:37:29.670 locals were still so hostile that he reportedly 00:37:29.670 --> 00:37:32.489 received anonymous messages asking him to leave 00:37:32.489 --> 00:37:35.230 the town that they felt he was dishonoring with 00:37:35.230 --> 00:37:37.869 his strange paintings. He apparently told his 00:37:37.869 --> 00:37:39.670 coachman that because the world didn't understand 00:37:39.670 --> 00:37:43.289 him, he withdrew into solitude. And today? Today, 00:37:43.349 --> 00:37:45.570 it can't get enough of Cezanne. They are actively 00:37:45.570 --> 00:37:49.050 marketing his life and legacy. The town now proudly 00:37:49.050 --> 00:37:51.449 features five officially marched tourist trails, 00:37:51.670 --> 00:37:54.230 allowing visitors to discover the places he painted 00:37:54.230 --> 00:37:57.610 his family estate. Jard de Buffon, the Bibemus 00:37:57.610 --> 00:38:00.309 quarry where he painted rocks, and so on. His 00:38:00.309 --> 00:38:02.789 last studio up at Les Loves is now a dedicated 00:38:02.789 --> 00:38:05.550 museum, a pilgrimage site. And for a while, they 00:38:05.550 --> 00:38:07.730 even named the local university after him, Paul 00:38:07.730 --> 00:38:10.210 Cezanne University, demonstrating just how completely 00:38:10.210 --> 00:38:12.210 the town has reclaimed and embraced the difficult 00:38:12.210 --> 00:38:14.650 artist at once, Korn. He's now their main cultural 00:38:14.650 --> 00:38:17.750 export. So we've traced Paul Cezanne's incredible 00:38:17.750 --> 00:38:20.449 path. From the privileged banker's son reading 00:38:20.449 --> 00:38:23.170 Virgil with Zola through the decades as a ridiculed 00:38:23.170 --> 00:38:25.429 impressionist who was apparently terrified of 00:38:25.429 --> 00:38:28.570 physical touch, to finally becoming this profound 00:38:28.570 --> 00:38:32.030 philosophical architect of modern art. His slow, 00:38:32.090 --> 00:38:35.369 intense, obsessive pursuit of realization fundamentally 00:38:35.369 --> 00:38:38.170 redirected the entire aesthetic course of the 00:38:38.170 --> 00:38:41.050 20th century. I think the key takeaway, if there 00:38:41.050 --> 00:38:43.170 is one, is that Cézanne was desperately trying 00:38:43.170 --> 00:38:46.170 to paint reality not just as we're conditioned 00:38:46.170 --> 00:38:48.250 to see it through centuries of artistic convention, 00:38:48.469 --> 00:38:51.809 but as we truly, physically sense it in a lived, 00:38:51.869 --> 00:38:54.449 temporal way. Merleau -Ponty, the philosopher 00:38:54.449 --> 00:38:56.550 we mentioned, suggested Cézanne possessed almost 00:38:56.550 --> 00:38:58.789 a kind of sixth sense, that he could somehow 00:38:58.789 --> 00:39:01.170 sense reality in the process of becoming before 00:39:01.170 --> 00:39:03.250 it fully coalesced into the stable objects we 00:39:03.250 --> 00:39:05.409 normally perceive. He struggled relentlessly 00:39:05.409 --> 00:39:08.630 his entire life to embody, as he put it, a personal... 00:39:08.780 --> 00:39:11.039 perception and sensations what really stands 00:39:11.039 --> 00:39:12.980 out to me now thinking about it all is the sheer 00:39:12.980 --> 00:39:15.300 intentionality the slowness required for his 00:39:15.300 --> 00:39:18.000 method we talked about the agonizing pace 150 00:39:18.000 --> 00:39:21.809 sessions for a single portrait what if What if 00:39:21.809 --> 00:39:24.190 Cezanne's incredibly slow, meticulous process, 00:39:24.309 --> 00:39:26.929 his demanding, solitary way of working was actually 00:39:26.929 --> 00:39:30.210 his deep, maybe unconscious reaction against 00:39:30.210 --> 00:39:32.489 the accelerating speed and visual fragmentation 00:39:32.489 --> 00:39:35.550 of his own modern era? The era of the railway, 00:39:35.769 --> 00:39:38.690 the photograph, the very train that ironically 00:39:38.690 --> 00:39:41.210 might have first inspired his most enduring subject, 00:39:41.429 --> 00:39:43.329 Monseigneur Victoire. Maybe he instinctively 00:39:43.329 --> 00:39:45.869 knew he had to slow way, way down to find the 00:39:45.869 --> 00:39:48.030 underlying truth beneath the blur. That's a really 00:39:48.030 --> 00:39:50.940 powerful framework to think about it. rejected 00:39:50.940 --> 00:39:54.019 superficial speed in favor of deep structural 00:39:54.019 --> 00:39:57.380 truth. So maybe, for you, the listener, living 00:39:57.380 --> 00:39:59.380 today surrounded by instant images, constant 00:39:59.380 --> 00:40:01.920 information overload, the relentless demand for 00:40:01.920 --> 00:40:04.320 rapid output, how does cultivating something 00:40:04.320 --> 00:40:06.980 like a Cezanne -like lived perspective, that 00:40:06.980 --> 00:40:10.019 intentional, slow, deep way of viewing the world 00:40:10.019 --> 00:40:12.579 where, as Merleau -Ponty suggested, sight becomes 00:40:12.579 --> 00:40:15.719 touch, how might that help you organize the chaos 00:40:15.719 --> 00:40:18.119 of your own modern life? How might it help you 00:40:18.119 --> 00:40:20.059 achieve a truer realization in whatever field 00:40:20.059 --> 00:40:22.139 you pursue? It's really the difference between 00:40:22.139 --> 00:40:24.340 just skimming the surface and truly understanding 00:40:24.340 --> 00:40:25.960 the structure beneath. Something to definitely 00:40:25.960 --> 00:40:28.579 mull over. Indeed. Until our next deep dive.