The Gulf of Marseille Seen from L'Estaque

Cezanne painted this view of the Gulf of Marseille from the village of L'Estaque, on the hillside above the harbor, around 1885. He had been coming to L'Estaque since the 1870s, staying with his wife's family. The village looked south across the water toward Marseille, with the Montagne Sainte-Victoire visible in the distance. The composition is built in geometric blocks. The foreground is a cluster of rooftops and walls, painted in reds, oranges, and browns. Behind them, the sea stretches across the middle of the canvas in a band of blue and green. The sky above is pale, built in broad strokes of white and blue. Marseille sits on the far shore, a line of white buildings against the hills. The composition is almost architectural, with each element occupying its own band of the canvas. Cezanne was in his mid-forties when he painted this. He had been working in isolation at Aix-en-Provence for several years, developing the approach that would influence Picasso and Braque twenty years later. The roofs at L'Estaque are painted as faceted planes, each one a different angle, each one a different color. The sea is built in parallel strokes of blue. The trees that frame the view at the left are dark silhouettes against the sky, painted in vertical strokes of green and black. Cezanne painted several views of L'Estaque. The Met's version is one of the largest and most resolved. Another version, in the Art Institute of Chicago, shows the same view from a slightly different angle. A third, in the Musee d'Orsay, focuses on the pine trees in the foreground. All three were painted within a few years of each other. Oil on canvas, 73 by 100 centimeters, roughly 29 by 39 inches. Cezanne used short, directional brushstrokes, each one following the form it describes. The roofs are built in strokes that follow the slope of the tiles. The sea is built in horizontal strokes. The sky is broader, with longer strokes of pale color. This print works in a living room or dining room, where the blue and gold Mediterranean palette suits warm lighting. The horizontal composition fills a wide wall. The 18x24 size gives the architectural forms enough room to read. The 16x20 framed version also works in a smaller space. The painting entered the Met's collection in 1929 through the Havemeyer bequest.