9781422271742

PAUL CÉZANNE

PLATE 2 Achille Emperaire (1869–70) Oil on canvas, 78 3 ⁄

4 x 48 inches (200 x 122 cm)

Emperaire was a painter friend of Cézanne’s, and this portrait reveals him as a small, wistful, and uncertain figure seated in a pretentious chair. There is no evidence of any animosity between the two, but it hardly seems an affectionate portrayal although the two were good friends for at least ten years. The effect of the composition is curious, the reason being that Emperaire was a dwarf with a large head and a thin body and limbs. Cézanne later described him as “a burning soul, nerves of steel, an iron pride in a mis-shapen body, a flame of genius in a crooked hearth.” Cézanne made preparatory drawings for the portrait, which shows Emperaire much as Cézanne has described him, one drawing carrying within it almost the vitality of a Bernini sketch. nothing to be communicated, it would not have used its own visual language to make an essential statement. It is consequently important to attempt to identify what Cézanne’s achievement actually was. That is not easy. At a conference concerned with art education at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London some years ago, one speaker complained that it was sad that few art students could explain what the central core of Cézanne’s work was, at which the chairman opined that he himself was not sure that he could, and to complete the circle the speaker himself confessed that he was not sure he could either. That may act as a salutary warning. Most students of Cézanne’s work agree that it was seminally important and are able to adduce reasons, make perceptive comments, examine the effect of associations, explain his technique, quote his own observations on art, and analyze his paintings; but even when aggregated,

and asks oneself what there is in these works that explains the prices they command. Altogether then, a great but difficult painter, whose work, it appears, must be explained before it can be appreciated and enjoyed, and even then one wonders whether “enjoyment” is the right word to identify the experience. Painting is a language of the eye that appeals to both the visual sense as well as the mind. It is not literature, nor is it photography. It has often been said that if a picture could be entirely translated into words, leaving

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