Mona Lisa has such a mysterious smile, but why doesn't Mrs Cezanne, who models her husband, always smile? Li Qing, a doctor of China Academy of Fine Arts and an oil painter who has specially studied Cezanne, helped us to do some analysis.
People say that Mrs Cezanne is not as sexy as his apple.
What's so special about Cezanne's apple?
Cezanne has a famous saying: With an apple, I can make Paris burst. He not only painted many apples, but also painted apples in a way that no one else has ever used, and painted many apples that no one else has ever seen. What's more, he told others everywhere that these apples are the apples that draw the most like apples in the world! Where are these apples tough? Is Cezanne particularly fond of painting apples? Cezanne's "reality" is different from the three-dimensional reality of monocular fixed-point focus perspective since the Renaissance. Because people's vision is actually binocular vision rather than monocular vision, and with the movement of viewpoints, it is inevitably confusing and fresh. What is the truth of vision? This leads the thinking of painting from "what to draw" to "how to draw". It is a visual research based on the unity of subject and object in the face of the phenomenon itself. The authenticity of Cezanne's apple is based on this visual research starting point.
Cezanne will buy many apples from the farmer's market in his town, and bring them back to his sunny studio with two large French windows, and arrange them one by one. In order to let the sun shine on his favorite place, he carefully put the silver coin under the apple to pose the shape he wanted, so that he could present the apple in front of him just right. Day after day, he did visual experiments with apples, which were both Cezanne's muse and a carrier for him to observe the world.
Some art critics say that other impressionists present a moment, while Cezanne wants to record eternity. Meyer Shapiro, a famous American art historian, wrote in Modern Art: 19th and 2th centuries: "The apple looks solid, weighty and round, as if it could be felt by a blind man; However, these features are realized through touchable color strokes, each of which makes the audience pay attention to the mental decision and the operation of the wrist while interpreting a visual feeling. In such a complicated process (as far as our poor description is concerned, it seems too rational, just as a philosopher wants to grasp both external things and subjective things in our experience of everything), the ego is always present, which is between what he feels and knows, or between perception and practical ordering activities, and controls his inner world by controlling something beyond himself ... Apple is the equivalent of human image for him. As we all know, Cezanne is eager to paint real people naked, but he is always embarrassed in front of female models-he is worried about his own impulse. When this impulse can be freely presented on canvas in imagination, the result is that his early paintings are full of fanatical passion. "
This edition hosts Jinn's
Madame Cezanne Sitting in a Red Armchair (1877)
What are the Madame Cezanne in the painting?
Cezanne's portrait of his wife spans 2 years, and she is different in each work. On the surface, although she always sits, she sometimes looks like a melancholy virgin, sometimes like a strict headmaster, and sometimes like a boy with a flat chest in albert nobbs. From the secular aesthetic point of view, it is not beautiful. The most common image in her paintings is a housewife with a middle part, and her clothes buttons are almost buttoned to her chin.
The exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum brought together four dramatic paintings, namely the series "Madame Cezanne in a red dress". In each work, she sits in the same light blue room and wears a long-sleeved country dress with a belt. One of the works is collected by the Metropolitan Museum. In the picture, she leans stiffly to the right, just like the earthquake made her chair and the surrounding walls tilt, but she still sits there calmly.
who is Cezanne's wife?
The Lady Cezanne in the Red Skirt (1888-189)
Cezanne's wife Oldan Figg Cezanne met Cezanne in Paris in early 1869. She is a bookbinder from a working family and a model for artists. At that time, Cezanne was over thirty, and Oldan was only 19 years old. Soon after they met, they got together. Three years later, they gave birth to a son. At that time, Cezanne registered his son in his own name without hesitation, but Oldan never became Cezanne's official wife. After 17 years of acquaintance, Oldan really became Mrs Cezanne. Cezanne kept it a secret from his family. At that time, he often went to visit his parents without taking his wife and son home. Cezanne is in great awe of his father, because his life depends entirely on him. His paintings were never sold in his early years, and the source of life for his family of three was the 2 francs his father sent him every month.
Madame Cezanne in a cuckold (1894-1895)
Why is Madame Cezanne so unhappy?
The lady Cezanne in the painting is always so serious that she can't laugh. Therefore, there is a cognitive misunderstanding here. According to some information, many people think it is because of Oldan's experience. The relationship between her and Cezanne was not harmonious enough. For a long time, Oldan was underground. It was 17 years after she met Cezanne that she became Cezanne's real wife. At that time, her son was 14 years old. In addition, some people think that Cezanne and others have been living on his father's financial support, and they are not well-off economically, while Oldan likes socializing very much. At that time, in the era of deep-rooted male chauvinism, Mrs Cezanne was even demoted to a gloomy and tender fat man, and even Cezanne would make fun of her in this way. People often say that Cezanne's portrait of his wife is not as sexy as the apple he painted in his still life. This negative evaluation not only filled her life, but also extended to the picture. This makes Oldan unhappy to some extent. All these add up to a "can't laugh" Mrs Cezanne. However, all this is just everyone's guess. There is no written record of the story of Cezanne and his wife, so no one knows what Mrs Cezanne really thinks.
However, by studying Cezanne's painting ideas, we can know the significance of his works. Cezanne's portrait is very different from that in the traditional sense. His portraits, non-secular portraits, the texture and plot in traditional portraits are not what he expresses, and the instant feeling of Impressionism is not the purpose of his painting. There is no essential difference between his portrait and his landscape. Cezanne constructs an order in the intuition of the object. This concept of painting needs to be based on a true view of the ever-changing world. "Did you see it? The contrast relationship must be established through the correct colors. You know, a little mistake in your eyes will ruin the whole thing. " (Selected Works of figurative expressionism, edited by Xu Jiang and Xiaojian Jiao, published by China Academy of Fine Arts in September 22, page 24)
Gasquet noticed that it takes 2 minutes for Cezanne to paint a portrait, not to mention a model, who can keep a smile and look at Cezanne's portrait for hundreds or even thousands of hours, whether it's his wife, son or that. It can be said that this is caused by Cezanne's painting method, not that his wife can't laugh, or that her wife doesn't laugh because she is in a bad mood.