Cezanne : A Biography

by John Rewald

This definitive life of the Post Impressionist includes color and black-and-white reproductions and includes the author's 1930 photographs of the French countryside paired with the famous paintings of each landscape

Genres: Art, Biography, France

288 pages, Hardcover

First published August 13, 1990

Reviews

[AC]

Far more of a biography than a study of Cézanne's work, this book relies very heavily on the correspondence with Zola, and is thus as much about Zola (and their friendship) as about Cézanne.

[Chris Gager · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still reading and looking at the pictures in this massive coffee table book. Lots of biographical detail but not a lot of discussions of the painting itself. There are other more analytical Cezanne books for that but they can be pretty difficult to slog through. I can understand the desire to put together a history of art down through time and I can accept some analysis of the various approaches that painters take but there's far too much unenlightening blah-blah about what is essentially a personal experience of the painter given as a gift for the viewer. I have four Cezanne books of my own but this one came from the library. Cezanne and Rembrandt stand alone at the top of the mountain.

[Andrea Samorini]

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FROM BOOK: Cézanne. Documenti e interpretazioni (Michael Doran)

[Lady Cupcake]

“You understand, Cézanne didn't know what he was doing. He didn't know how to finish his pictures. Renoir and Monet, they knew their craft as painters…”

[Matteo Cordero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paul Cézanne, Una vita è un libro scritto da John Rewald e recentemente ripubblicato in italiano con un saggio di Pier Giorgio Dragone. Si tratta di una biografia molto condensata ma completa, arricchita da diversi aneddoti sulla vita del pittore francese che non conoscevo.

Nonostante la brevità, ho apprezzato molto questa biografia perché presenta vari aspetti del lavoro e della vita di Cézanne che mi interessano, e che non riguardano solo le singole opere pittoriche. Ad esempio, vengono approfonditi il suo processo creativo, le sue idee e le difficili relazioni con il mondo dell’arte parigino, che culminarono nel suo isolamento nel sud della Francia. Ho trovato interessante anche il breve saggio supplementare dedicato alla vita dello scrittore John Rewald.

[Martinray2 · Rating 5 out of 5]

No one is more important to the foundations of modern art than Cezanne, and there is no greater authority on Cezanne than Rewald.

Of course, he initiated most all foundational principles for reinventing what painting "is", but ultimately, the most gratifying succor possible viewing Cezanne's masterpieces lies in his gift for ravishing the eye with the beauty of his doubt, the way his visual relationships "clasp hands", and lock together, doubtful but brave. Cezanne manifested in painting the realization of astrophysicist Carl Sagan three-quarters of a century later, when he intoned "we are all made of the same 'star stuff'".

[Robert Walkley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 1948, this biography gives a standard but lively account of Cezanne’s life and personality, his friends (especially Zola), and his art. Rewald quotes extensively from letters, includes many illustrations and interesting photographs, and also provides a solid biographical outline and bibliography. This is an excellent volume to begin to learn about Cezanne’s life and temperament. You will also learn about the art world that the impressionists struggled against to be seen and valued for their work. For Cezanne, recognition was a long time coming. His desire for solitude also worked against him. But as Rewald shows, Cezanne persevered to the very end.

[Rob Woodard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall this is a good book. The color plates are numerous and extremely well done, which is essential for any volume on a painter. Rewald's text is solid as well, in that it captures most of the details of Cezzane's life. I would have preferred more discussion of Cezzane's technique(s) and his thoughts on the artistic precess. Instead Rewald's spends a lot of time discussing the negative reception the artist's work originally received. Again, this is a good book--but it could have been a great one.