French
Paul Cézanne was born on January 19, 1839, in Aix-en-Provence, France. While in school, he had become an intimate friend of fellow artist Emile Zola. After a failed return to law school he spent the next twenty years dividing his time between the Midi and Paris. He briefly attended the Atelier Suisse with Camille Pissarro. Cézanne also had long friendships with painters Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Cézanne's watercolor technique relied on subtle overlapping washes incorporating the white of the paper as in integral element in the piece. His method of work was to apply his colors pure with only the rare mixing on the palette perferring to allow the layered color washes of subtley different hues to merge into additional colors. Cézanne's use of direct drawing in either charcoal or pencil often played a major role in supporting the stylistic foundation of his watercolor paintings. — Watercolor Masters: Paul Cézanne © 2010 Greg Conley
Additional Links:
guggenheim collection humanities web expo-cezanne.com cezanne.com (in french) artlex.com
