Maison devant la Sainte-Victoire près de Gardanne (House in Provence)

House in Provence shows a landscape in the south of France, the region where Cézanne lived with his family and where he had spent his youth. An isolated farmhouse stands at the centre of the scene, solid and compact, surrounded by fields, soft green hills and, in the background, greyish-blue mountains. The date of execution is not entirely settled: some sources place it in 1885, others between 1886 and 1890, so it is best treated with some caution.

What stands out is the way the image is built. Cézanne was not chasing a fleeting moment of light as his Impressionist contemporaries were; he was concerned with the underlying structure of what he painted. Horizontal bands of grey-blue, green and brown sit against the upright trees and the volumes of the house, producing a calm balance. The palette is restrained, with muted colours, and the brushstrokes criss-cross into a kind of patchwork that animates the hard edges of the house and the mountain.

The canvas looks onto the southern side of Montagne Sainte-Victoire, a subject the painter returned to again and again. For this reason it is often regarded as a good example of his mature style, in which he sought a solid form built from simple elements. Its later history, with several private owners and an acquisition in 1945 that eventually brought it to Indianapolis, shows how it passed into the hands of American collectors.

Painter

Paul Cézanne

Date

1885

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Dimensions

66 × 81 cm

Museum

Museo de Arte de Indianápolis, Indianapolis

Genre

landscape painting

Depicts

house, nature

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