AFTER THE IMPRESSIONISTS TALK 1: CÉZANNE

Sat 19 Oct, 11am–12pm

Online and at the Museum

This event is at the Museum in the Headley Lecture Theatre and online via Zoom

It is the first in our series of talks on Post-Impressionists as Change Makers

With Juliet Heslewood, art historian and author

The first Impressionist exhibition was in 1874 and caused disruption in the Parisian art world. By the end of the century artists had explored its innovations, liberating them from the conventions of the past. Their dramatic changes, achieved out of the movement, would have wide-spread repercussions, establishing Paris as the centre of the modern European stage.

Cézanne’s work grew out of Impressionism, which he left behind as he explored his own daring innovations. He was born and bred in Aix en Provence and returned there after several years in Paris where his knowledge of Impressionism led him to consider the significance of 'sensation' while confronting nature.

Paul Cezanne's The Basket of Apples in colourful oil on canvas, c 1893

The Basket of Apples, Paul Cézanne, c. 1893, oil on canvas © Art Institute of Chicago | Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection

In this talk Juliet Heslewood reveals how he observed the southern countryside not as sweeping, but faceted in terms of volume. Cézanne claimed that the artist 'opens the way for his successors' and his original interpretations of landscape, figures and still-life led to the development of the Cubist movement.