Cézanne Portraits

Charming exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery focusing on the portraits of Cezanne.

Cezanne didn’t accept payment for portraits or work on commission, he just painted people who interested him. I was hooked from the first striking picture opposite the entrance of his father reading framed by a white chair. The show was quite sparsely hung, so even though it was popular, there was room to walk round and see the pictures properly, not just close up but also across the room to get the full effect.

I liked his repetition of sitters so you could see them at different ages and in different moods, such as the set of his Uncle Dominique which were unknown until Cezanne’s death as they weren’t sold. I also liked the pictures of his wife throughout the show from soon after he met her when she was 19. And of course he often used himself as the subject and there were self-portraits scattered around the show.

The show was very good at explaining Cezanne’s technique of using constructive brushstrokes ie patches of colour applied in parallel to create shades and shape.

I loved the last room which showed his portraits of the people of Aix alongside people from the art world. It was interesting to see the pictures of local men who then appear in the card player scenes and moving that the last two pictures were of his gardener inside and outside the studio.

Closed on 11 February 2018

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