Motif: Atelier des Lauves

After his family sold the Jas de Bouffan in 1899, Cézanne moved back into the city. But he soon acquired a plot of land north of town on a hillside known as Les Lauves, within walking distance of his apartment, and built a large studio to accommodate the three monumental canvases executed during his last years known as The Large Bathers. The Atelier des Lauves, a two-story structure that still exists, gave Cézanne the privacy he craved while placing him closer to favorite motifs such as the Montagne Sainte-Victoire. At Les Lauves Cézanne frequently painted outdoors. The studio's garden terrace commanded panoramic views of the city and the surrounding countryside, which he captured in the unfinished but magisterial late work The Garden at Les Lauves, c. 1906, and in radiant watercolors, such as Aix Cathedral Seen from the Studio at Les Lauves, 1904–1906.

In addition to the watercolors and the scenes of bathers, Cézanne painted numerous still lifes at the studio, including the moving Three Skulls on an Oriental Rug, 1904. This traditional memento mori (“remember death”) subject, which he addressed in an earlier painting, Pyramid of Skulls, 1898–1900—resonated with the artist in his old age. Conscious of his own mortality, he also felt a special affinity for the aged gardener at Les Lauves, Monsieur Vallier, who sat for several portraits, including the pensive and melancholy Gardener Vallier, 1902–1906, and the more light-filled The Gardener Vallier, 1905–1906.

«Motif: Montagne Sainte-Victoire | Motif: Bathers»