Paul Cézanne - The Avenue at the Jas de Bouffan [1874-75]

Paul Cézanne - The Avenue at the Jas de Bouffan [1874-75], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The Jas de Bouffan was an estate on the outskirts of Aix-en-Provence with a fine house dating from the seventeenth century. It belonged to Cézanne's family. Its avenue of chestnut trees provided the motif for a series of pictures by Cézanne, of which this is the earliest. Although difficult to date, it seems likely that it was painted after Cézanne's Impressionist phase. The construction of the picture, with its compressed space, heavy forms and slab-like diagonal foliage (made using a palette knife) is complex. It marks the first appearance of various elements that were to characterise many of his later, classically designed landscapes.

[Oil on canvas, 38.1 x 46 cm]