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Paul CzannePaul Czanne (January 19, 1839 – October 22, 1906) was a French painter who was the bridge from Impressionism to Cubism. Life and work He was born in Aix-en-Provence and went to school there. From 1859 to 1861 he studied law, while still continuing drawing lessons. Against the objections of his father, he decided to pursue an artistic career and left for Paris with his friend Zola in 1861. Gradually, his father became reconciled to his course of life and supported him in it. He eventually received a large inheritance, on which he could live with ease. In Paris, he met Camille Pissarro and other impressionists. Czanne began with the light, airy painting of the impressionists, but gradually solidified it and made it more architectural. In his words: "I want to make of Impressionism something solid and lasting like the art in the museums." He structurally ordered whatever he perceived into simple forms and colour planes to create the most telling image of the subject matter. His paintings were included in the first exhibition of the Salon des Refuss in 1863, which displayed works not accepted by the jury of the official Paris Salon, which had rejected Czanne's submissions every year from 1864 to 1869. To early 20th-century modernists, Czanne was the founder of modern painting. Henri Matisse called him "the father of us all." His geometric essentialisation of forms influenced Cubism, in particular. He is widely known as the father of modern art. Czanne and Zola fell out over Zola's fictionalized depiction of Czanne in the novel L'Oeuvre (The Masterpiece, 1886). He exhibited little in his lifetime and worked in increasing artistic isolation, remaining in the South of France far from Paris. He concentrated on a few subjects: still lifes, studies of bathers, and especially the Mont Sainte-Victoire, of which he painted innumerable views. In 1906, Czanne collapsed while painting in the open during a thunderstorm. One week later, on October 15, he died of pneumonia. On May 10, 1999, Czanne's painting Rideau, cruchon et compotier sold for US$60.5 million, the fourth highest price paid for a painting up to that time. (See also the List of most expensive paintings.) External links Czanne, Paul Czanne, Paul Czanne, Paul Czanne, Paul
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