Paul Cézanne (1839~ 1906), a representative post-impressionist painter, was born in the southern French city of Aix-Provence. His father, a rich banker, once wanted to train his son to be a lawyer. Cezanne, however, is not interested in law, but is particularly interested in painting. 1862, 23-year-old Cezanne finally broke through the family's obstruction and came to Paris to specialize in painting. Through the introduction of Zola, a good friend, I got to know MANET, pissarro and other impressionist painters, and participated in many impressionist art exhibitions. Later, because of dissatisfaction with the artistic pursuit of Impressionism, he parted ways with Impressionism. Since then, he devoted himself to his own artistic exploration and made great achievements in painting, becoming an outstanding and epoch-making painter in the history of modern western art. Cezanne's paintings have distinctive characteristics. He emphasized the purity of painting and attached importance to the formal composition of painting. Through painting, he wants to explore a simple form under the appearance of nature, and at the same time he will form an orderly image from the scattered images he sees. To this end, he conducted a series of artistic explorations. First of all, he emphasized the clarity and three-dimensional image in the painting. He believes that if the objects in the painting are blurred, then it is impossible to seek the composition of the picture. Therefore, he opposed Impressionism, a painting language that ignored sketches and made objects hazy. He is determined to "make impressionism as firm and permanent as the art in the museum". Therefore, he tried his best to pursue a painting language that can create bright and solid characters. When he paints, he often outlines objects with black lines, and even outlines air, rivers and clouds. In his paintings, close-ups and distant objects are clearly drawn on the same plane. This processing method not only distanced itself from the traditional expression techniques, but also left room for the picture composition. Secondly, in his creation, he excluded complicated details and focused on simplified and generalized images. He once said: "cylinders, cones and spheres should be used to represent nature." In his works, the description of scenery is simple and full of geometric significance. Some people think this is because he is not good at detailed description. But even if this statement is true, it shows that he has the ability to foster strengths and avoid weaknesses, thus giving play to his creativity in formal composition. Third, for the formal structure of the picture, he did not hesitate to sacrifice objectivity and truth. He was the first to get rid of the restrictions imposed on painters by the replication law of western artistic traditions for thousands of years. In Cezanne's paintings, there are often intentional distortions of objective modeling, such as inaccurate perspective and deformation of characters. He has no intention of recreating nature. His description of natural objects is basically to create a rhythm composed of shapes and colors. He once said: "As for whether the painter paints an apple or a face, it is a kind of support for the painter, a kind of expression of lines and colors, and nothing else."

Cezanne attaches great importance to the formal beauty of painting and emphasizes the order of visual elements in the picture. In fact, this pursuit has already appeared in the western classical art tradition. Cezanne has always had respect for classical art, and Pu Sang, a French classical painter, is his favorite. He once said: "My goal is to draw Pu Sang-style works with nature as the object." He tried to make his paintings reach the wonderful balance and perfection in Pu Sang's works. He is so persistent in pursuing this aspect that he does not agree with the traditional law of reproduction. He went to extremes and broke away from the tradition of western art. In this way, he was honored as the "father of modern painting".