French Post-Impressionist Painter, 1839-1906 During the second half of the 19th century French impressionism created a dramatic break with the art of the past. In conception and appearance the style was radically new and, although it initially inspired public ridicule, it soon affected nearly every ambitious artist in western Europe. The new vision emerged during the 1870s, chiefly in the art of Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, and Camille Pissarro. For each of these artists impressionism was an illusionistic style which differed from the tradition of Renaissance illusionism in its greater emphasis upon vibrant, natural color and on an immediate confrontation with the phenomena of the visible world. As the style developed during the 1880s, however, it increasingly became characterized by paintings which were flat rather than illusionistic. In other words, the impressionists insistence upon a direct application of pigment to canvas resulted in surfaces which declared themselves first of all as surfaces - and, consequently, in paintings which declared themselves first of all as paintings rather than as windows which looked out upon the natural world. The tendency toward flatness persisted into the last years of the 19th century, its pervasiveness giving the impression that illusionistic space - fought for, won, and defended since the very beginning of the Renaissance - had finally been sacrificed by the medium of painting. Paul C??zanne worked within and finally emerged from this trend. As a painter, he matured slowly, his greatest works coming during the last 25 years of his life. During this period he scored a remarkable and heroic achievement: he restored to painting the space and volume that had seemingly been lost to it. But he did it in a totally unprecedented way: not by return to the illusionism of the past but by the creation of a spatial illusionism that did not violate flatness. C??zanne was born on Jan. 19, 1839, in Aix-en-Provence. His father, Philippe Auguste, was the cofounder of a banking firm which prospered throughout the artist life, affording him financial security that was unavailable to most of his contemporaries and eventually resulting in a large inheritance. In 1852 C??zanne entered the Coll??ge Bourbon, where he met and became friends with Émile Zola. This friendship was decisive for both men: with youthful romanticism they envisioned successful careers in the Paris art world, C??zanne as a painter and Zola as a writer. Consequently, C??zanne began to study painting and drawing at the École des Beaux-Arts in Aix in 1856. His father opposed the pursuit of an artistic career, and in 1858 he persuaded C??zanne to enter law school at the University of Aix. Although C??zanne continued his law studies for several years, he was simultaneously enrolled in the School of Design in Aix, where he remained until 1861. In 1861 C??zanne finally convinced his father to allow him to go to Paris. He planned to join Zola there and to enroll in the École des Beaux-Arts. But his application was rejected and, although he had gained inspiration from visits to the Louvre, particularly from the study of Diego Vel??zquez and Caravaggio, C??zanne experienced self-doubt and returned to Aix within the year. He entered his father banking house but continued to study at the School of Design. The remainder of the decade was a period of flux and uncertainty for C??zanne. His attempt to work in his father business was abortive, and he returned to Paris in 1862 and stayed for a year and a half. During this period he met Monet and Pissarro and became acquainted with the revolutionary work of Gustave Courbet and Édouard Manet. C??zanne also admired the fiery romanticism of Eug??ne Delacroix paintings. But he was never entirely comfortable with Parisian life and periodically returned to Aix, where he could work in relative isolation. He retreated there, for instance, during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871).  Related Paintings of Paul Cezanne :. | Still life egg bread | Pang Schwarz map of the Garden | Madame Cezanne dans la serre | A Modern Olympia | The Card-Players |
Related Artists:
Douglas Volk
1856-1935 Douglas Volk (1856 - 1935) was an American portrait painter and the son of noted sculptor Leonard Volk. He was named after his mother's cousin (Abraham Lincoln's political rival) Stephen A. Douglas.
Mabel Pryde
(February 12,1871, Edinburgh - July 1918, England.) was an artist, best known for being the wife of artist William Nicholson and mother of artists Ben Nicholson and Nancy Nicholson and the architect Christopher 'Kit' Nicholson. Mabel was the daughter of David Pryde, Headmaster of Edinburgh Ladies College 1870-1891, and Barbara Lauder, whose father William was a brother of the famous Scottish artists Robert Scott Lauder and James Eckford Lauder. Mabel had one brother, the artist James Pryde. As children they lived at 10 Fettes Row, a north-facing Edinburgh house. Pryde trained at the Bushey School of Art under the tutilage of Hubert von Herkomer. Here she met fellow student William Nicholson whom she married in 1893. She introduced Nicholson to her brother James and all three moved to Eight Bells, Denham, Buckinghamshire, where Nicholson and James Pryde would collaborate on the famous series of lithographic posters they disseminated under the pseudonym J. & W. Beggerstaff. Pryde and Nicholson had four children - Ben (1894-1982); Anthony (1897-1918) who was killed in action during the First World War; Annie Mary "Nancy" (1899-1978), and Christopher "Kit" (1904-1948). In July 1918 Pryde died from influenza in during the 1918 flu pandemic and was survived by her husband.
Stefan Lochner
German painter (b. ca. 1400, Meersburg am Bodensee, d. 1451, Köln was a German late Gothic painter. His style, famous for its clean appearance, combined Gothic attention towards long flowing lines with brilliant colours with a Flemish influenced realism and attention to detail. He worked mainly in Cologne, Germany, and his principal work is the triptych of the Altar of the City Patrons (done in the 1440s, which is in the Cologne Cathedral), which represents the city in homage to the infant Jesus. The epitome of his style is Madonna of the Rose Bower (c. 1450, housed in the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne), showing the Virgin and Child reposing in a blooming rose arbor and attended by Lochner's characteristic child Angels.