Paul Cézanne is much lauded for his oil paintings such as “The Basket of Apples” and “The Boy in a Red Vest,” but few may realize that the post-impressionist painter completed some of his most revolutionary artworks on paper using pencil and watercolor. Cézanne Drawing brings together more than 200 of these rarely seen pieces at The Museum of Modern Art in New York City for a once-in-a-generation experience, the first time a U.S. exhibition presents Cézanne’s lesser-known body of work. The French artist’s works are on view from June 6 through September 25.
Paul Cézanne’s
“Mont Sainte-Victoire (La Montagne Sainte-Victoire vue des Lauves)” (1902–06)
The exhibition examines how Cézanne’s graphic works radically contributed to his development as a modern artist and emphasizes his use of particular materials and techniques to generate meaning. Museumgoers can view study sheets, exposing a range of distinct subjects depicted in different scales, styles, orientations and perspectives, as well as sketchbooks featuring intimate portrayals of his family members and household objects, the natural world, lively renderings of bathers and more. Rarely seen, large-scale watercolor paintings reveal a cultivated relationship between pencil and watercolor, where graphite lines and watercolor washes converge and diverge.
