An affordable introduction to the key places, people and motifs in the life and art of Cezanne

Paul Cezanne’s incomparable, architectonic rendering of light and color provided the foundation of his reputation as a forerunner of modernism. Which specific locations left such vivid impressions on this scion of a provincial banker’s family? What and who were the influences supporting and advancing his innovative oeuvre? In this affordable volume, acclaimed art historian James H. Rubin traces Cezanne’s life and work from A to Z, creating an image of a painter who aspired to “do Poussin over again after nature.” As the book’s title indicates, Rubin also explicates and champions the Société Paul Cezanne’s campaign to remove the accent on the artist’s surname in accordance with its original Provençal spelling.
James H. Rubin (born 1944) is an art historian and professor at the State University of New York in Stony Brook, specializing in 19th-century art with a particular interest in French modernism. He has published 13 books, including Impressionism (Phaidon, 1999), Impressionism and the Modern Landscape (University of California Press, 2008), How to Read Impressionism (Abrams, 2013) and, most recently, Why Monet Matters: Meanings Among the Lily Pads (Penn State University Press, 2021).