Paul Cezanne The Father of Modern Art Lives On in Provence

There is something humbling about standing where an artist once stood and inhabiting the space where his art was visualized and born. This was my experience discovering Cezanne in Aix-en-Provence, where he lived, found inspiration, painted, and died. He saw and captured the bright Mediterranean colours and the saturated sunlight. I followed his gaze.

Aix Celebrates Cezanne

In 2025, Paul Cezanne (1839 -1906) was celebrated in a tribute to his life and work in his hometown, Aix. Despite spending most of his life there, Cezanne was, like many artists, not recognized by his townsfolk. But Cezanne is now receiving the honour he deserves. The perspective included his early artistic explorations of the paintings of family, friends, and workers on the plaster walls of his estate home, Jas de Bouffan. The exhibition also included the Lauves studio and the Bibemus quarry, both essential landmarks in Cezanne’s evolution as an artist.

©Perfectly Provence

Discovering Cezanne’s Provence

As a casual student of art and an occasional painter, I knew a smattering about Cezanne’s work and less about his life. When the exhibition coincided with a trip to Provence, in September, my husband and I navigated to include Aix and the Musée Granet. Before our trip, Cezanne was a familiar name, but we weren’t able to converse about his life or work. When we were at the Louvre, we sought out his paintings and found mountain landscapes, fruit still lifes, elegant portraits, and a version of “The Card Players.” Seeing those paintings heightened our anticipation beyond mere appreciation, because we knew we were going deeper into Cezanne’s life, searching for him in Provence.

We loved the gentle-paced, warm charm of Aix after the hectic pace of Paris. The small old-town winding streets were elegant, with pale ochre buildings, tree-lined boulevards, and baroque fountains.

Works of Art

Our tour at the Musée Granet was a step into Cezanne’s life as a son, husband, father, and painter. We followed his work chronologically, met his portraited family and friends, and were guided to navigate timeless expressions of his life through his remarkable creations. The earliest paintings were on salon walls, which the new owners of Jas de Bouffan later wallpapered over. Eventually, a curator had the painted plaster panels removed and transferred to canvas. Some of these early works stand in their original arrangement in the Musée.

Cezanne the Nature Lover

Cezanne was a dedicated student and master of landscapes, yet his colour palette was limited. He carried his materials with him until he landed in a place of inspiration. On the canvas, he embodied a richness that achieved remarkable brightness, contrast, and depth, inspired by the land before him. The tour was an impressive, well-curated journey woven through Cezanne’s personal and artistic life. He was deeply dedicated to capturing his art – the catalogue of his life work cites over 4,000 entries.

Paul Cezanne’s Mountain

As a young man, Cezanne attended free art school and played among the routes of Mont Sainte Victoire. The ochre tones of the soil beneath him, the glass greens of the rolling hills, and the violet grays of the mountain drew him outdoors to paint, in every season. One of Cezanne’s last landscapes was created in the fall of 1906. He fell and remained in the wet and cold until someone came along. He died of pneumonia at 67 years old. Cezanne painted his beloved mountain over 80 times in his life. It is a mountain unlike any other.

©Kathryn MacDonell

You can rent an Ebike or take a short drive through the iron-enriched russet earth of the countryside to view the luminous and textured Mont Saint-Victoire, a scene Cezanne never tired of and painted outdoors. His captures, in oils and watercolours, reflected the mountain’s changing planes and shifting light. We watched the subtle tones and shapes of the rockface evolve during the afternoon hours. We imagined Cezanne beside us, painting the mountain he loved with his short, parallel, distinctive brushstrokes.

©Kathryn MacDonell

The National Endowment for the Humanities gives us a deeper perspective on the artist. “Paul Cezanne revered the Old Masters, yet influenced waves of modernists.” The Old Masters continued to inspire and guide Cezanne during his frequent visits to the Louvre in Paris. As an aging artist, young painters travelled to Aix to learn from Cezanne, while an aging Cezanne returned to the Louvre to be guided by the art of the past. He was a lifelong student. In 1876, he wrote, “ The advantage of art: painting endures. “

Art Community Respect

Cezanne was not well-respected for his work by his family during his lifetime. His father wanted him to be a lawyer. Cezanne feared his father and kept a 16-year secret from his future wife. Hortense Fiquet was a frequent model and figure in his painting and only visited Jas du Bouffan to meet Cezanne’s parents after they were married and had a son. Cezanne was afraid to lose his allowance. Even the locals didn’t realize they had an icon in their town. He gained notoriety on an international stage after his death, when Japanese and American collectors recognized his work. But Cezanne was a man who lived to paint. Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, and others revered him. Picasso said, “Cezanne is the father of us all.” His work was foundational in the Cubism movement for its geometrical representation of nature. Today, Cezanne is well-respected as the Father of Modern Art.

Building your travel itinerary to include places where a famous painter lived and produced some of the world’s most treasured paintings is memorable. I intend to shape future visits to Provence through artists like Matisse and van Gogh, who inhabited it. Cezanne was our invisible guide, giving us new eyes to observe Aix through his work and life. I see and feel his paintings through an emotional lens and feel a deep reverence for his passion, his life, and his creations.

Practical Information

Musée Granet (website)
Place Saint-Jean de Malte,
13100 Aix-en-Provence
Closed on Mondays

Bastide du Jas de Bouffan (website)
4 route de Valcros
13100 Aix-en-Provence

Aix-en-Provence City Guide

Saint-Tropez - Jewel of the French Riviera: Full day tour with a winery visit

Spend your day as a movie star in Saint-Tropez! The departure is set early in the morning to avoid the traffic towards the legendary town, with which a thousand stories are associated. The experience will start with a tour of this enchanting small fishing town of Saint-Tropez, which inspired numerous painters and whose beauty of the port always attracted the cinematographic world.

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Kathryn MacDonell

Kathryn writes creative non-fiction to give shape to the emotions of our evolving experiences. A traveller to 30 countries, she now embraces her French roots and inner French girl. She loves the ocean, museums, words, and travel adventures with her husband.