"Mont Sainte-Victoire is one of the
many views Cezanne painted of this mountain near his home in
Aix-en-Provence. In it he replaced the transitory
visual effects of changing atmospheric conditions, effects
that occupied Monet,
with a more concentrated, lengthier analysis of the colors
in large lighted spaces. The main space stretches out
behind and beyond the canvas plane and includes numerous
small elements, such as roads, fields, houses, and the
viaduct at the far right, each seen from a slightly
different viewpoint. Above this shifting, receding
perspective rises the largest mass of all, the mountain,
with an effect - achieved by equally stressing the
background and foreground contours - of being simultaneously
near and far away. This portrayal approximates the
actual experience a person observing such a view might have
if apprehending the landscape forms piecemeal. The
relative proportions of objects would vary, rather than
being fixed by a straight one- or two-point perspective,
such as that found normally in a photograph. Cezanne
immobilized the shifting colors of Impressionism into an
array of clearly defined planes that compose the objects and
spaces in his scene."
- Gardner's Art
Through The Ages,
11th edition, Vol. II, p. 923
Mont Sainte-Victoire
"The basis of Cezanne's art was his unique way of studying
nature in works such as Mont Sainte-Victoire. His aim
was not truth in appearance, especially not photographic
truth, nor was it the "truth" of Impressionism but a lasting
structure behind the formless and fleeting visual
information the eye absorbs. Instead of employing the
Impressionists' random approach when he was face-to-face
with nature, Cezanne attempted to intellectually order his
presentation of the lines, planes, and colors that comprised
nature. He did so by constantly and painstakingly
checking his painting against the part of the actual scene -
he called it the 'motif' - he was studying at the moment."
- Gardner's
Art Through The Ages,
11th edition, Vol. II, p. 922
Mont Sainte-Victoire (2)
And here is an actual photo
image of Mt. Sainte-Victoire from Aix-en-Provence:
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