Cezanne et nous

In The Sainte-Victoire Mountain with the Large Pine, a branch crosses the sky and guides the eye toward the mountain. For Paul Cézanne, the way of constructing a landscape matters as much as the landscape itself. At the Grand Palais, Cézanne and we start from what the painters saw in his paintings to follow the sometimes opposing paths they drew from them.

The story begins in the shop of Père Tanguy, at a time when Cézanne exhibited little. Gauguin and Signac are among the artists who buy his paintings. Works such as Apples and Biscuits give the measure of what an ordinary subject could offer these painters. A table, a plate and a few fruits are enough to make the colors play and to shift the balance of the composition. A few years later, the 1907 retrospective at the Salon d’Automne marks Picasso and Braque, who find there a way to rethink the construction of space.

The journey also returns to the bodies of The Large Bathers. Their silhouettes and the trees together outline the framework of the painting. This attention to the structure interests the Cubists, while other artists pay more attention to the play of colors or to how a motif transforms through painting. By continuing the rapprochement with Joan Mitchell or Bridget Riley, the exhibition shows how the same painting can nourish very different lines of inquiry. The Landscape by Etel Adnan, with its green mountain and square sun, ultimately returns to the question posed by Sainte-Victoire. What must be preserved from a landscape so that painting can convey its presence?

Practical information
- Entrance via Square Jean Perrin, 17 Avenue du Général Eisenhower.
- Friday night opening until 10 p.m.
- Closed on Mondays and on December 25. Closing at 6 p.m. on December 24 and 31.
- Special opening on January 1.