978-1-4222-3257-6

The Painter ’s Father, Louis-Auguste Cézanne

(c. 1865)

The Railway Cutting

(c. 1870)

Like a number of other paintings, this one was painted directly onto a wall at Jas de Bouffan, bought by Cézanne’s father

in 1859. The artist’s father is thought to have been in his early sixties when the piece was composed using a palette knife.

The strokes used were quick and aggressive.

Influenced by the steam trains that ran close to Jas de Bouffan, Cézanne worked on a number of railway subjects while

he lived in Aix. This particular work was an early experiment in different types of landscape composition.

The Railway

Cutting

shows the railway cutting at the center of the piece with a signal box, while both sides of the canvas balance the

apparent equilibrium, with Mont Sainte-Victoire to the right in undulating landscape and a house on a small hill to the left.

Although the artist would return to the mountain motif many times, this was the first time he focused on the mountain in its

own right. While he concentrates on the railway line between Aix-Rognac, and went on to depict the railway in a number

of landscape subjects, including viaducts and railway buildings, he chose not to include the steam trains for which these

lines were built. This was unusual in terms of Impressionism, where steam trains were often the central focus.

• Oil on house paint on plaster mounted on canvas scrim, 66 in x 45 in (167.6 cm x 114.3 cm)

• Oil on canvas, 31.7 in x 50.9 in (80.4 cm x 129.4 cm)

Cézanne, Paul (1839-1906): The Painter’s Father, Louis-Auguste Cézanne, c. 1865. London, National Gallery. Oil on house paint on plaster mounted on canvas scrim,

Cézanne, Paul (1839-1906): The Railway Cutting, c. 1870 (in the background the Montagne Sainte Victoire). Munich, Neue Pinakothek Muenchen, Bayerische

cézanne