Cezanne/Sky Arts

Last night  the Sky Arts series featured Cezanne and his portrait exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.

Cezanne is renowned for his landscapes and still life and in art history – the bridge between nineteenth century Paysage together with Impressionism and the modernists.

He is less well known for his portraits but the somewhat extravagant claim was made that he was the finest portrait painter since Rembrandt.

Anthony van Dyck and Velazquez were – though slightly younger – almost exact contemporaries of Rembrandt for starters as exceptional portraitists and after them Gericault and John Singer Sergeant, so the claim does not hold up.

Nor really does an exhibition devoted to Cezanne without any of his sumptuous landscapes of his native Provence nor his still life.

The programme did feature his correspondence, mainly with his great friend Emile Zola, and was of interest on Cezanne’s life.

Many artists are born to great poverty and struggle financially.

Cezanne’s father was a wealthy banker but never gave his son much financial or other support.

Indeed when Cezanne Senior found out his son had fathered a baby by Hortense he cut off his allowance altogether and it was Zola who financed him.

Conversely, my friend Ken Howard is a carpenter’s son from Kilburn and his dad made huge sacrifices to provide him with his first paint box.

Thankfully Cezanne had the determination to continue and he generated reverence from his fellow artists though he only expressed admiration for Monet and Renoir.

Picasso and  Braque were huge admirers and it is no coincidence that Picasso launched Les Desmoiselles d’Avignon on the world in 1906 the year of Cezanne’s death.

It was a case of  “The King is dead. Long live the King.”

A criticism I do not care for is that Cezanne is an artist’s artist.

This is  a term of admiration applied throughout the arts.

I have heard Saul Bellow called a writer’s writer by a contemporary author.

I dislike the term as it really means us lesser mortals can not appreciate him/her.

It also follows that painters like David Hockney or Ken Howard are inferior as they are easier to appreciate.

My conclusion on this programme and show is that I would much prefer to hang a Cezanne landscape or still life on my wall than one of his portraits.