Where to See Paul Cézanne's Best Works?

Paul Cézanne was a French painter, hailed as the father of modern art, who laid the foundations for Cubism. You can always recognise Cézanne's work — which fused old and new, Impressionism and twentieth-century experimentation — by its repeated brushstrokes and vivid blocks of colour. His investigations laid the groundwork for later generations' attempts to depict the same object from multiple points of view. If that isn't enough, consider this: Cézanne's "The Card Players" is the second most expensive artwork in the world, acquired by the Qatari royal family for 250 million dollars.

"Three Bathers"

The Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool

A visit to the Liverpool gallery lets you see young Cézanne's early works, in which he explores sensation, light and Romanticism. The young Cézanne drew inspiration from dramatic classical mythology. Followers of Freudian theory suggest this reflects an unconscious urge to express anger and sexual repression. Indeed, Cézanne's early works convey passion with great expressiveness. This museum also holds the most famous work of the period, "The Murder". It clearly explores rage: the painting shows the killer moments before the fatal blow. The contrast of light and dark, and the shadowy figures, recall Velázquez and Goya — proof that Cézanne admired the old masters. At the same time, the seeds of modernism are already visible, as the subject matter is entirely unlike that of his contemporaries.

"The Murderer"

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York

Still life came alive on Cézanne's canvases. He gave silent, inanimate objects energy and movement. At the Museum of Modern Art in New York you can admire some of Cézanne's finest still lifes. Painting ordinary objects in their ordinary surroundings was a bold move at the time, and Cézanne knew it. Before unveiling "Still Life with Fruit Dish", he said: "I want to astonish Paris with an apple." This painting is still discussed today — the fruit is solid and does not dissolve in the light, unlike in Impressionism, yet there is also a clear attempt to bring an inanimate object to life. By painting ordinary objects, the artist grew closer to ordinary people; his works became a reflection of the lives of real people rather than the cultural elite.

"Still Life with Fruit"

The Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

There were people who mattered greatly in Paul Cézanne's life, and his relationships with them had a strong influence on his work — something best seen in the paintings held at the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg. He was deeply attached to his mother and sister, as shown in "Girl at the Piano". Although the title suggests distance, the two figures in the painting are placed very close together, signalling love and a deep bond. Couples, too, are always significant in Cézanne's work. In 1869 the artist began a relationship with a young seamstress, Hortense Fiquet. He later married her and they had a son. Hortense appears in many of the artist's canvases, always radiant with youth and beauty. Also not to be missed is "The Smoker", in which the artist uses bright, pure colours to create a wistful portrait of his gardener. Here the painter depicts an ordinary man, a labourer; the position of the man's elbow aligns with the curtain, forming a unified composition.

"Girl at the Piano"

Musée D'Orsay, Paris

It's no surprise that one of the finest collections of the artist's work is in his home city. Housed in a converted railway station, the Musée d'Orsay holds one of the world's best collections of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art, so if you want a proper lesson in art, you'll know where to go. The works on display here show a strong Pissarro influence — short brushstrokes, and a clearly Impressionist manner in the paintings depicting French houses. In "The House of the Hanged Man" you can make out features of both Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Imagination, sensation and vivid colour matter here, but so does a clear composition, with straight, angular lines that lend realism and mark a departure from the Impressionists of the time.

"Mont Sainte-Victoire"

The Courtauld Gallery, London

The Courtauld Gallery in London holds a wonderful collection of Cézanne's work. This is the best place to see his landscapes. It also displays several of the artist's drawings and watercolours, along with stunning views painted near his home town of Aix-en-Provence. Cézanne was fascinated by the relationship between people and landscape, raising the question of how modern people relate to nature. He painted Mont Sainte-Victoire more often than anything else, depicting it in around 100 oil paintings and watercolours. He was also fascinated by water. In 1896 he painted "The Blue Lake". It stands out for its rigid lines and the use of a palette knife to render the reflections.

"The Blue Lake"

Philadelphia Museum of Art

Toward the end of his life, the artist painted three large, striking canvases of nudes, which are held in this very museum. The series is called "The Great Bathers". The figures are arranged with clear allusions to the classical painting he loved so much in his youth — the women recall Diana and her maidens. Although the work was never finished, it is clear the artist was exploring geometric forms and multiple points of focus. The paintings are displayed so that visitors can admire them in sequence and compare Cézanne's work with that of other artists.

"The Great Bathers"