Cézanne’s Portraits

National Portrait Gallery, 26th October to 11th February 2018

According to Ambroise Vollard, Paul Cézanne held that “the goal of all art is the human face,” but sitting for him was excruciating. Even so, in his lifetime, Cézanne painted over 200 portraits, including 26 self-portraits and 29 portraits of his patient wife, Hortense. He would conjure, with his deceptively austere geometries, the unease of his sitters. This exhibition gathers together works ranging in date from Cézanne’s vigorous, thickly painted portraits of his Uncle Dominique, dating from the 1860s, through to his final portraits, in 1906, of his gardener, Vallier, with their patches of luminous paint

YOU'VE HIT THE LIMIT

You have now reached your limit of 3 free articles in the last 30 days.
But don't worry! You can get another 7 articles absolutely free, simply by entering your email address in the box below.

When you register we'll also send you a free e-book—Writing with punch—which includes some of the finest writing from our archive of 22 years. And we'll also send you a weekly newsletter with the best new ideas in politics and philosophy of culture, which you can of course unsubscribe from at any time

Email

Prospect takes your privacy seriously. We promise never to rent or sell your e-mail address to any third party.
You can unsubscribe from the Prospect e-mail newsletter at any time.