PAUL CÉZANNE

Paul Cézanne’s (French, 1839–1906) paintings took Impressionism into new territory, introducing ideas that contributed to the development of modern art. Whether depicting a cluster of fruit, a mountain, or his wife’s face, Cézanne relentlessly explored how color and light convey the substance and solidity of forms.

His distinctive painting technique—comprised of parallel brushstrokes that create blocks or squares of color—enabled him to articulate different facets of an object or landscape, and to construct images from patches of color. His experiments with space and perspective inspired younger artists—among them Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, who reportedly declared Cézanne “the father of us all.”