Paul Cézanne’s Houses On The Hill

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Paul Cézanne’s Houses on the Hill
Houses on the Hill by Paul Cézanne is a 60.3 by 79.2 centimeter oil-on-canvas landscape painting. It currently can be viewed at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas. Cézanne began this painting in 1900, yet it remains unfinished due to his death of pneumonia in 1906. Cézanne built a landscape of houses and foliage on a hill looking over a river bank in Houses on the Hill. He emphasizes on the fusion between color and nature.
During Cézanne’s time, “the father of modern painting” as he is now referred to, experimented with different styles such as impressionism and classicism. Houses on the Hill, although, is an example of Cézanne’s experimentation with post-impressionism. This style was formed primarily from impressionism but was further developed with the ideas and interests of the individual artists themselves. In Cézanne’s case, he focused more on nature and landscapes, and the impressions they leave. Cézanne was indeed considered a post-impressionist, but toward the end of his life and career as an artist, he is known to be involved in a movement called cubism. Cubism is historically thought of as the creation of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Many art historians, however, believe cubism evolved from the late works of Cézanne, such as Houses on the Hill, and influenced the more renowned cubists. Cubism is essentially the radical rethinking of space as is known in art, moving more into abstraction. The canvas itself is thought of as a plane rather than a window. Moreover, this style can be broken down into two different types, analytical cubism and synthetic cubism. Houses on the Hill is an example of analytical cubism. Analytical cubism is basically the breaking down of objects. These objects seemingly overlap and merge into each other. Shallow depth and
cool tones are both characteristic of analytical cubism. Other examples of this style are Picas...