Saving Cezanne’s Studio
Was at my studio today but did not get much done except touch up my painting Cezanne’s Back Yard, which I painted last week.Â
I like to study my own work in my Chelsea work, as photos, absorbing what I did for what I can learn and improve.  I looked at Cezanne’s Back Yard and saw some more orange in the lower left of the painting - on the table in the foreground. After a day or two of having the same feeling - decided I would view the painting today and decide if I should add the extra orange coloring; I did, but the change is subtle, hardly detectable in a photo.
Meanwhile, I found an article written in Art in America - July 2002 - Saving Cezanne’s studio: the author recalls his youthful efforts to preserve Cezanne’s final studio in Aix-en-Provence, and the disillusion that followed his successful campaign - Memoir by James Lord.  In 1950, when James Lord first visited Aix, hardly anyone knew Cezanne’s name. Kinda weird, if you ask me …. as several streets and restaurants now called after Paul Cezanne - in fact I bought a Comic Book of Cezanne’s life when I visited his studio - it’s in French so I can’t read it (unless I get someone to translate it for me).
Also, here’s the movie I made a couple of weeks ago when I was in Aix-en-Provence and visited Cezanne’s Studio and painted a study for Cezanne’s Back Yard.
Hi Marshall,
I stumbled across your website while trying to find a photo of one of Cezanne’s paintings at the Metropolitan Museum, and now after seeing the video, I think I stumbled across it at YouTube as well when I was searching for videos of Cezanne’s studio.
When I saw your painting “Cezanne’s Backyard”, I thought it was one of his!
It seems that you have been to the Met many times.
Do you by any chance have a clear photo of “Scene Fantastique”
(The Fishermen)?
The image at the Met website is too small to see the details I need to see, which are the man standing in the boat highlighted against the sail, and what looks like a round, partially glazed jug at the bottom just to the left of the signature.
There is a similar jug shown in some of the photos of his studio, which is why I was looking for videos of that.
This is for an art research project I am working on while doing missionary / humanitarian work in Thailand.
Haha, there are no telephone lines in the village I am staying at, and no running water per se, but we do have electricity (most of the time) and I had a satellite Internet system installed last year.
So websites like yours help me keep up with art news.
I have been systematically reading your articles, and have found them very enjoyable.
I also find that Starry Night painting by Van Gogh to be quite captivating, and eerily reminiscent of childhood memories of fishing at night with my Dad…or something.
If I can find a big enough image of it, it would make a great desktop background for my laptop!
Thanks for all of the great articles!
PS. And let me know if yuo have a clear shot of Scene Fantastique! GM
By G. Mills on August 13th, 2007 at 10:34 pm