Between 1882 and 1904, Paul Cezanne created 80 artworks with the motif of the Ste Victoire, near his hometown of Aix en Provence.

La Montagne Sainte-Victoire au grand pin was painted in 1887 in the first series of paintings made from Bellevue, near his sister’s home.

His comment is based on “The all-blue scent of pines, which is bitter in the sun, must marry the green odor meadows that are fresh every morning, with the smell of stones, the scent of the far away marble from Sainte-Victoire. " and « Art must be in parallel harmony with nature ».

Cezanne was an artist’s artist and very early on had the admiration and support of many of his contemporaries. Among them Degas, Monet, Renoir, Pissarro who all collected his work. Pissarro was a father figure for Cezanne and he wrote « astounding and curious temperament of our time and great influence on modern art”.

Renoir declared later to his son “his artistic value is unequaled since Roman art” and he pushed the career of his friend by introducing him to the art collector Victor Choquet, which led him to be represented by Ambroise Vuillard and get a solo show in 1895.

 

Sources : Cezanne,  Catalogue Philadelphia Museum of Art 1996

Paul Cézanne, précurseur du cubisme: Quand la couleur crée la forme, Delphine Gervais de Lafond, 2014