Cézanne: The Rock and Quarry Paintings is the first exhibition to examine essential but underestimated aspects of the revolutionary French painter’s work: his profound interest in rocks and geological formations, and his use of such structures to shape the compositions of his canvases. Three of the principal areas of France in which Cézanne (1839-1906) painted landscapes are full of rocky terrain: the Forest of Fontainebleau, southeast of Paris; L’Estaque, a village in Provence on the Mediterranean coast immediately above Marseille; and the area around Aix-en-Provence, his birthplace. With significant loans from museum and private collections in the U.S. and abroad, the exhibition features approximately 15 of the two dozen canvases that the artist made at these sites, supplemented by selected watercolors. An accompanying fully illustrated catalogue considers the entire corpus of Cézanne’s work on these subjects.
Organized by the Princeton University Art Museum in association with the Royal Academy of Arts, London, Cézanne: The Rock and Quarry Paintings premieres in Princeton from March 7-June 14, 2020, before being shown in London from July 12-Oct. 18, 2020.
