Phillips Collection: Up Close With Paul Cezanne

There was a little (one room) show featuring 6 of the museum's paintings by Paul Cezanne called "Up Close With Paul Cezanne".  Over the years I've come to know a little more than the average person about this artist thanks to decades of "museum-ing" all across the U.S.  He was a hot item right about the time that so many of the "Robber Baron's" were creating their legacy art museums.  In particular, a "block-buster" exhibition that I saw at the Philadelphia Museum of Art back in the summer of 1996, and another featuring his portrait works at the National Gallery in 2018 did much to deepen my understanding and appreciation of his oeuvre.  

My experiences have helped me to understand what his life's work about vis a vis his vision.  He was very much a product of his limited geography, and aspects of that played immense roles in his life.  The gallery is very much set up as a master class complete with text, diagrams and artifacts from his life.  Furthermore, the little collection of these paintings does a lovely job of touching on the key ideas and inspirations of his work.  I've seen them all before, but the two etchings at the entrance to the room were new to me.  How exquisite.  

Self-Portrait, circa 1898

Fields at Bellevue, 1892 - 1895

The educational placard that accompanied "The Fields at Bellevue".

A pair of paintings: L - a self-portrait, and R - a landscape featuring Mont Sainte-Victoire.

Throughout his life, Paul Cezanne was fascinated by (or fixated upon) the long dormant volcanic peak known as Mont Sainte Victoire.  He produced dozens of paintings of this peak over his lifetime.  In fact, it was on the slopes of this mountain that he fell ill only to die a few short days later.  In my mind, I liken his obsession with Mont Sainte Victoire with that of Herman Melville's Icon Captain Ahab and Moby Dick.  Both men chased an illusive obsession, and in the end both died as a result.

A portion of the accompanying placard that discusses the choices made between the under-drawing and the finished painting.

A table with artifacts in print and a timeline of the paintings in the exhibit above.