Read the text and choose the correct answer.

There are

few visitors to the countryside around Aix-en-Provence who do not see its

dramatic forms through the eyes of its most famous inhabitant, Paul Cézanne.

Day after day for the last 20 years of his life the artist set up his easel to

paint Mont Sainte Victoire and the surrounding countryside.

Sadly,

Cézanne’s efforts frequently left him dissatisfied as he felt he was not

achieving the high artistic goals which he had set himself. Nor was his

dedication appreciated by the townspeople of Aix, where Cézanne had been born

in 1839.

The

painter was very much disliked, and lived alone and isolated – a classic case

of the misunderstood, awkward and unconventional artistic genius.

He had

retired to Aix partly because he had not done well in the artistic world of Paris.

His work took much longer to gain acceptance than that of the Impressionists –

an injustice for which Cézanne bitterly resented his former artistic

colleagues.

Cézanne

had first gone to Paris in 1861. He met Camille Pissarro at the Academy Suisse,

and the violent subjects of his early work gave way to the subjects and style

of Impressionism. But he soon felt the need to go beyond this, to “make of

Impressionism something solid and lasting, like the art of the museums”. He

wanted to add intellect to the sensations that lay behind the work of artists

like Monet.

Like

the Impressionists, Cézanne was part of a movement away from the museums as a

source of artistic inspiration and towards the direct observation of nature.

“One must make a vision for oneself,” he wrote. “One must see nature as no one

has seen it before.”

Cézanne’s

efforts lasted a lifetime. “I must carry on – I simply must paint from nature,”

he wrote in 1906. By this time, his work was beginning to be recognised. He had

had his first successful exhibition in 1895, and was beginning to attract a few

young followers. Despite this, his death certificate identifies him as a man of

private means and not as an artist.

His works were not shown in the town

museum until some years after his death. Aix is now embarrassed by this late

acceptance of its artistic son, and today one can get a map which leads one to

Cézanne’s favourite places for painting. Although much has changed, you can

still see landscapes which are very much the same as those seen in the

paintings. You can also visit Cézanne’s studio, where objects made famous in Cézanne’s

still lifes are on display.