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Paul Cezanne (1838-1906) View Paul Cezanne's Art Prints Regarded by many as the first truly modern artist, Paul Cezanne transformed the face of 19th century painting and heralded the advent of cubism. Born in Aix-en-Provence to a wealthy banking family, Cezanne studied law before surrendering to his passion for art. In 1862 the artist traveled to Paris, enrolling in the Atelier Suisse where he painted alongside Pissaro, Renoir, Sisley and Degas. Repeatedly rejected by the Salon (the official exhibition presented annually by the French Academy), Cezanne exhibited three paintings in the first impressionist show of 1874. His early work shows the influence of French masters Courbet and Delacroix, but ultimately Cezanne abandoned his early style, along with Impressionism, in favor of an increasingly abstract interpretation. He believed art should be "a harmony which runs parallel with nature." Cezanne sought to reduce nature to three shapes: the cylinder, cone and sphere, rendering these shapes in skillfully modeled patches of color. Cezanne spent the last years of his life as a near recluse in Aix, where he painted a series of works of a long favored subject, Mont Sainte-Victoire. An extensive retrospective of the artist's work was exhibited in 1996 at the Grand Palais, Paris, the Tate Gallery, London, and Philadelphia Museum of Art. View Paul Cezanne's Art Prints

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