10 Of The Most Famous Paintings By Paul Cézanne

November 22, 2021 3 min read

Paul Cézanne, considered by many to be the father of modern painting, was a French post-impressionist painter. His pictorial solutions acted as a bridge between the figurative painting of the nineteenth century and the most groundbreaking and avant-garde currents of the twentieth century, which created an important context for future developments in art. We have collected his most important works, to provide an introduction to his career and thus help you assess his place in art history. Read on to learn about the paintings of Paul Cézanne, which he considered his most significant works.

1. THE GREAT BATHERS

Paul Cézanne’s The Great Bathersis considered a masterpiece. It paved the way for future artists to break away from tradition, thus providing a bridge between Post-Impressionism and art movements of the twentieth century. It also featured in the BBC series of 100 greatest paintings.

2. THE CARD PLAYERS

The Card Players demonstrates Cézanne's thoughtful and deliberate approach to his work. It is considered among the most important works of Post-Impressionism. In 2011, one of the paintings of the series was sold for more than $250 million and since then it has held the record for the most expensive piece of art ever sold.

3. BOY IN THE RED VEST

Paul Cézanne's The Boy In The Red Vest, valued at $91 million, is an oil painting created by him in 1905. It was stolen from Zurich and was in news when it was recovered from Serbia in 2012.

4. THE SAINTE-VICTOIRE MOUNTAIN SEEN FROM MONTBRIAND

The Sainte-Victoire Mountain seen from Montbriand are well known for the masterful way in which Cezanne has depicted their reality and our perception of them.

5. PYRAMID OF SKULLS

Paul Cézanne’s “Pyramid of Skulls” is described in The New York Times as being exceptional in the artist’s oeuvre, for “in no other painting did Cézanne place his objects so close to the viewer.” The piece has also inspired many artists ever since, including Picasso and Andy Warhol.

6. THE MODERN OLYMPIA

Paul Cézanne's Modern Olympia is a magnificent exponent of the artist's first period of transition to modernity. In his early works Cézanne painted in such a way as to emulate the old masters (he used a dark palette and his compositions were indebted to Delacroix or Courbet). Moreover, the contrast between the characters is striking. The nudity of the woman contrasts not only with the elegance of the man dressed in black but also with the maid herself, who reveals her own attributes.

7. STILL LIFE WITH APPLES

This Still life with apples, presented as a still life, the painting is made up of simple apples on, what we sense is, a wooden table. Cézanne does not follow any conventions in his composition, as apples roam freely across a canvas without a frame. These apples are not perfect spheres, but they seem to be consistent and irregular spherical volumes. In the work, no apple stands out as a great protagonist, but all of them are treated with great care and effort, as if they were great and virtuous heroes.

8. MONTAGNE SAINT-VICTOIRE

Paul Cézanne's painting Montagne Saint-Victoire is another of his most important works. It is evidence of Cézanne's interest in the physical world. He became fascinated with the landscape, especially mountains such as the one near Aix called Saint-Victoire, which he painted on more than seventy occasions. Like Monet, Cézanne would choose a motif and paint it at different times of the day and from different points of view.