Mont Sainte-Victoire
Paul Cézanne, ca. 1902–6
About this artwork
Paul Cézanne's *Mont Sainte-Victoire (ca. 1902–6), an oil on canvas now housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, captures the artist's lifelong obsession with the iconic mountain overlooking his hometown of Aix-en-Provence. As a cornerstone of Post-Impressionism, this panoramic landscape exemplifies Cézanne's final years, when he obsessively painted the peak eleven times in oil and countless times in watercolor. Working in his studio until his death, he enlarged the canvas to expand the foreground and right side, refining his vision over four years. The composition unfolds in rhythmic layers: lush green trees and fields in the foreground give way to houses and vegetation in the middle ground, culminating in the mountain's massive form against a glowing sky. Cézanne's signature geometric simplification—modulated color patches and interlocking planes—builds solidity and atmospheric shimmer through dense, layered brushstrokes, creating a tapestry of depth without traditional perspective. This "grandest and most resolved" version influenced Cubism and abstraction by prioritizing form and structure over mere representation. Donated through the Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg Collection, it invites visitors to witness the bridge between Impressionism and modernism. (198 words)