Paul Cézanne
Paul Cézanne (January 19, 1839 - October 22, 1906), the painter of and from Aix-en-Provence, was the bridge from Impressionism to Cubism. In paintings such as the 1885 Mont Sainte-Victoire and 1887 Madame Cézanne we can see the inspiration for the Cubists and even the Fauvists.
Life and work
Cézanne began with the light, airy painting of the Impressionists but and gradually solidified it and made it more architectural. In his words "I want to make of Impressionism something solid and lasting like the art in the museums." He structurally ordered whatever he perceived into simple forms and colour planes to create the most "telling image" of the subject matter. Such an exploration led him to the painting of several still lifes.
To early 20th Century Modernists, Cézanne was the founder of modern painting; Henri Matisse called him "the father of us all. His geomtric essentialisation of forms influenced cubism in particular. He is widely known as the father of modern art.
Cézanne and the important novelist Émile Zola were friends from childhood and youth, but broke in later life over Zola's fictionalized depiction of Cézanne in the novel L'Oeuvre (The Masterpiece, 1886).
On May 10, 1999, Cézanne's painting Rideau, Cruchon et Compotier sold for US$ 60.5 million, the fourth highest price paid for a painting up to that time. (See also the List of most expensive paintings.)
In 1906 Paul Cézanne collapsed while painting in the open during a thunderstorm. One week later, on October 15, he died from pneumonia.