Cézanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin Contact List

Author: H. B. Chipp
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-02-01
Features: It is not surprising that there are flaws in Cézanne's art theory. Although he often repeated his motto—create, don't theorize—he was not an anti-intellectual. He excelled in school, frequently winning awards, particularly in Latin and mathematics; even as a young man, he wrote poems praising Zola. He read many literary works and was familiar with many great novelists and playwrights, and he could even offer insightful evaluations of novels given to him as gifts by friends. They were solitary and arrogant, galloping at will, their whips flickering, spitting out sparks of cynicism. They sang off into the distance, shedding a trail of disdain, pouring out a world of applause. To understand Cézanne's artistic views, we can almost only start from the few letters he wrote to his friends. He was an astonishing letter writer. Many of his letters have been preserved, but he usually talked less about art in them than about family matters, friends, and general issues. émile Zola was a childhood friend of Cézanne's, a writer who was very active in the Parisian cultural and artistic circles.