In Cézanne in the Study: Still Life in Watercolors, Carol Armstrong
places this great painting within the context of Cezanne’s artistic and psychological
development and of the history of the genre of still life in France. Still
life—like the medium of watercolor—was traditionally considered to be “low” in
the hierarchy of French academic paintings. Cézanne chose to ignore this
hierarchy, creating monumental still-life watercolors that contained echoes of
grand landscapes and even historical paintings in the manner of Poussin—the
“highest” of classical art forms. In so doing he changed his still lifes with
new meanings, both in terms of his own notoriously difficult personality and in
the way he used the genre to explore the very process of looking at, and
creating, art.
Carol Armstrong’s study is a
fascinating exploration of the brilliant watercolor paintings that brought
Cézanne’s career to a complex, and triumphant, conclusion, The book includes
new photographic studies of the Getty’s painting that allow the reader to
encounter this great watercolor as never before, in all of its richness and
detail.