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There are treasures to be taken away from
this country, which has not yet found an interpreter worthy
of the riches it offers. Cézanne spent the winter of 1885–1886 with Hortense (whom he married in 1886) and their young son Paul in Gardanne, a small village situated on a high hill east of Bellevue. The town's cascade of cubic houses lent itself well to Cézanne's preoccupation with architectonic forms, which had first emerged in the paintings of L'Estaque. For example, the composition of Gardanne, c. 1886, stresses the geometric rhythm of homes, their placement staggered along the hill, their angular structures integrated into the soft, organic forms of the landscape. The fluidly painted composition is unfinished, yet the passages of bare canvas contribute to the overall sense of light that emanates from it. As in his views of L'Estaque, Cézanne ignored the presence of industry in Gardanne—in this case, factories and coal pits that dotted the surrounding landscape—creating instead a timeless image of a picturesque Provençal town dominated by its bell tower. The countryside near Gardanne inspired several paintings, such as Hamlet at Payannet, near Gardanne, 1885–1886. Full of brilliant color and light, this work effectively plays the peaked roofs of the cubic houses against the jagged forms of the Montagne Sainte-Victoire in the distance. This is not the usual profile of the mountain peak associated with Cézanne's work, seen for example in Montagne Sainte-Victoire above the Route du Tholonet, c. 1896–1898. Instead, it is the long, flat flank of the mountain that runs for several miles from east to west. |
