Aix-en-Provence, to which Paul Cézanne was very tied, reveals through a pedestrian stroll the places which were dearest to him : Jas de Bouffan, l'école municipale de dessin (municipal school of painting), the cafe " les 2 garçcons", l'atelier des lauves (workshop of lauves) etc.

It is certainly one of the most interesting way to discover Aix-en-Provence.

After a walk of 2:30 hours, it is in the car that we will discover the landscapes which inspire Cézanne : la saint-Victoire, the aixois country, the banks of the Arc river ... through some of the sites painted by the artist.

Paul Cezanne is surely one of those who has the most influenced on the Art du XX ème century. Matisse admires his colors and Picasso develops fondations of the plan compositions in a cubist style .

Cezanne admires, as for him, Eugène Delacroix, Gustave Courbet, Edouard Manet for their paintings considered like shocking pieces by contemporaries. We ought to him 850 canvas out of which 170 still lives and 333 landscapes, around twenty bouquets and the same number of portraits.

He was born in Aix in Provence on January 19th, 1839.

His parents were married during 1844 at the Madeleine church, at the same date Paul and his sister Marie (born during 1841) were recognized legally by their father.

His father, Louis Auguste, was professionally established in Aix-en-Provence by taking over a hat-making industry at Cours Mirabeau.

From 1844 to 1850, Cezanne family lives in the street la glacière.

In 1847, the Bargès bank, the only one in Aix, is in bankrupt. Louis Auguste, the father of Paul Cezanne, joins with the cashier Cabassol to openone year later their own bank.

In 1856, the Bank will move from the street of the Cordeliers to the street Boulegon.

From 1850 to 1870, the Cezanne family lodged in the street Matheron. It is here that Rose Cezanne was born on 1st of June 1854.

From 1870, the Cezanne family lodges in the domaine of the Jas de Bouffan which became the family mansion. It is unfortunately unfeasible to visit.

Paul Cezanne goes to the school of the street des Epinaux when he got 5 years old.

When he was 10 years old, he is boarder half-time at school Saint-Joseph. It is here, that Paul would have learned the preliminar rudiments of the drawing from a Spanish monk.

Then he learns at the Bourbon school, today, the Mignet secondary school where he got in 1858 the high school diploma with mention enough well . He was a studious pupil, especially in Sciences and literatures. This last subject inspired him of several canvas. It is in this school that he built up his strong friendship with Emile Zola, with whom he had a correspondence all life long.

The father of Cezanne, who offered him his first colors boxes, objected to the passion of his son for the painting. In spite of, he gaves him with relactance, the permission to take his place in the municipal school of drawing and closed his ears to his requests to learn painting in Paris.

From 1858 to 1860, he tooks his place in the Law Faculty, to satisfy his father he thold in respect and fear. This father who would havethought that he pursues a career in the judicial authorities, which would allow the family to enter into the aixoise bourgeoisie.

Whatsoever the fear supported in front of his father, he had not to wait to achieve 3 years of law. In 1861, he lodged in Paris with the agreement of his parents. Disapointed by his failure to the entrance exam to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, he comes back, on September of the same year, to Aix in Provence where his father will do him working in the bank.

It is during this time that he painted the first canvas of his father, reading the newspaper "l' Evènement" (1866). Newspaper in which, his friend Zola wrote a plea against the refusal of the "Jury of the annual Show of the painting" to prize the canvas performed by the realistic and impressionistic painters whose Cezanne.

This painting is in a sense, a way for the painter, to justify himself in front of the eyes of his father after his failure to the entrance exam of Beaux-Arts and he will try contantly to triumph over the hostility of the Jury of the Show of painting.

Paul Cezanne was going out with Hortense Fiquet, he knew her since the age of 17 years. During the war of 1870, he stays with her between the village of Estaque and the street from Rome at Marseille (out of the visit), out of his father's knowledge.

His relationship with Hortense will remain secret up to 1878, although he got with her a son during 1872. During this time his mother who loves her grandson, supports him.

His father discovers the proofs of the relation with Hortense and his paternity in opening Paul's mail. In front of his denials Louis Auguste begins by cut down his pension sinking Paul Cezanne into a difficult financial position.

This ridiculous situation is finally resolved on April 28th, 1886, when Paul marries Hortense at the church Saint-Jean-Baptiste du Faubourg of Aix in Provence. But when he married Hortense, Cezanne did not love her.

His father dies the same year, in October, leaving to him a small fortune. Paul will be grateful to him to pass on him the means to dedicate himself to the painting without be concern with financial worries.

In 1891, he lodges at Jas de Bouffan with his mother, while he lodges his wife at Aix in the street of la Monnaie.

In 1895, the mother of Cezanne lodges in a flat at Cours Mirabeau. From June to September 1897, Paul pays visit to his mother every evenings and it is here that she dies on the 25th October 1897. The one who brought to him all her life long her unfailing support vanished. He was very affected and it is his sister Marie who took care of him and his supply problems. The funerals where at the church Saint Jean de Malte, on the 27th October 1897.

In 1899, Paul sells the Domaine of Jas de Bouffan and he moves into the center of Aix, the street where his father had create the bank. He managed his workshop in the highest floor.

Settled again in the center of Aix, Cezanne will take pleasure to spend time to chattingt in good company in the Cafe Clément or to the café "Les 2 garçcons. The sculptor Philippe Solari, the columnist Numa Coste, the poet Léo Larquier, the druggist Capdeville, the judge Fernand Bouteille ...

During 1901, he buys a land in the aixoise campaign, lined by the Verdon canal. Cezanne said about this place : "it is my workshop outside the walls". From this place he got an opened view over Aix and its surroundings up to the hill Sainte-Victoire his favourite model.

Paul Cezanne dies on the 22nd October 1906 further a pleurisy, in his house of 23 street Boulegon.

Hisfuneral will take place on the 24th October 1906 in the Cathedral Saint Sauveur.

He lies in the cemetery of Aix in Provence. From his tomstone you may see between the graves, the silhouette of the hill Sainte Victoire.

"To make a canvas, is to compose" he said.

The still life was his matter by excellence. For him, they force him to think about , although the face of a model is changing in his expression and a landscape is modified when the sun moves. The objects keep their place and their attitude which diffuses the light of the workshop. Fruits are perishable, this fact explains his choice for the apples (100 canvas) and the pears (75 canvas). But in his paintings with individuals, he talks some storie : the drunkards, the love fights, the womankind.

Stroll around Aix in Provence and visit some sites painted by the artist, is surely the best way to become immersed in his talent. The hill Sainte-Victoire, the sides of Arc river and the country around are some of the familiar places which have fed the inspiration of the painter.

Les lauves

Settling its trestle at 2 kms of his studio des lauves, Cezanne selected the higher point of viewin front of the hill Sainte-Victoire. He performed here between 1901 and 1906, eleven oil painted canvas and seventeen watercolors there, today preserved in the most prestigious museums of the world.

The sides of the Arc river

On August 14th, 1906, Cezanne writes to his son : "I wait for 4 o'clock, the car will come to pickup me and will drive me to the river at Pont des trois Sautets. There, it is fresher, yesterday I felt myself very well. I began a watercolor in the manner I have performed at Fontainebleau, it looks to me brightful, the most important is to put in it the more".

Le château noir (The balck castle)

From 1887, Cezanne is going to paint at Tholonet and hires the Château Noir (Black Castle), huge modern house which is black only by its name. He recognizes the landscapes of his casual youth, when with his friends he walked along the foot path behind the Château Noir, crossing on the tableland the domain of Paradou (from where Zola took over the name in "La faute de l'Abbé Mouret" (The fault of the abbot Mouret), then walking down towards la vallée de l'Infernet (the valley of Infernet).

La carrière de Bibémus (The quarry of Bibemus)

From November, 1895, Cézanne hires a cabanon, working to landscapes and upon the matter of Bibémus' quarry. The canvas is a somptuous cameo of oranges, ochre, red, vermilion, except a narrow sky and some puny pines. The depth is obtained olmost entirely with the color, demonstration of the worth of his project to express the perspective only with the color.

Bellevue

During december 1886, the sister of Cezanne, Rose, buys this mansion. In 1889, Renoir meets Cezanne at Aix and hires Bellevue to her step-brother. The painter performed here 11 oil-paintings and 2 watercolors.