| Aix-en-Provence: In Search of Cezanne |
| By Bob Bruno |
Published
07/24/2006
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Travel
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Aix-en-Provence: In Search of Cezanne
Few painters are as strongly associated with a single town as Cezanne is with Aix-en-Provence. Cezanne was a painter with an international reputation who rarely left his home town. Not surprisingly, the town has been quick to profit from Cezannes worldwide appeal, and is eager to accommodate anyone who wishes to follow the footsteps of the great man, and consider his work in the context of the landscape which inspired him.
The tourist office recommends a guided walk which will take you from Cezannes birthplace in the rue de lOpéra to his final home at 23, rue Boulegeon. You can still see the sign advertising the business which belonged to the painter's father on the façade of 55, Cours Mirabeau. Louis-Auguste Cézanne started out as a hatter, but became so successful in his trade that he was able to make loans to his fellow tradesman, and thus establish himself as one of the towns leading bankers. When the owner of a stylish uptown villa couldnt pay his debt, Cézannes father seized his home: a delightful residence formerly known as la Bastide du Jas de Bouffan, now the Musée Granet, which stands in the place de Saint-Jean de Malta, adjacent to a fortified Gothic church. In the neighbouring café, the Deux Garcons, Cezanne and his fellow artists regularly held court. The café has barely changed since the days when Cezanne violently argued with the towns other famous son Emile Zola; the novelist who claimed that art should reflect real life and who disliked Cezannes geometric, abstract style. Zola wasnt alone in his criticism. The Paris Salon rejected Cezannes pictures every year from 1864 to 1869. And his father, the hatter turned banker, was perplexed by his sons choice of career, attempting to force him to practice law before finally yielding and setting his artistic son to work on a frieze for the family home, which has been preserved at the Musée Granet. Perhaps Cezannes father wouldnt have despaired quite so much had he known that in 1999 his sons painting: Rideau, Cruchon et Compotier would sell for 60.5 million. Still money isnt much good unless you can earn it in your own lifetime! A little further on from the Musée Granet, youll find the exquisite place des Quatre-Dauphins, whose stylish Italian baroque fountain takes centre-stage, and the former palais de Malte where, despite his fathers objections, the young Cezanne studied drawing. After his fathers death, Cezanne sold the family residence and set about building the studio of his dreams, amongst the olive trees, on the rue Boulegeon. The Atelier des Lauves is located on the upper edges of a sloping plain which descends to the River Arc. Modern development has long-since masked the superb views the studio once commanded of Aix-en-Provence. But thanks to Cezannes American disciples, who bought the studio and presented it to the town, the interior has remained exactly as it was when the artist died. Nothing was moved after Cezannes death and it is rather eerie to see the artists brushes, paints, shirt and coat exactly as he left them. In the anniversary year of his death, the town has hired a landscape artist to locate the sites from which Cezanne painted some of his best known works. It now seems that many of his famous views of the Sainte Victoire Mountain, which is visible about 30 miles to the east of Aix, were painted from a cottage adjacent to the Atelier des Lauves. Cezanne collapsed nearby while painting there in autumn, 1906. One week later he died of pneumonia. The author, Bob Bruno, is a frequent traveller to France and a regular contributor to Engleberts French Travel Blog at http://www.french-letters.co.uk
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