Paul Cézanne remains one of the world's most beloved Impressionist painters. His works are among the most popular at major museums around the world, and visitors flock each year to Aix-en-Provence, where the garden at his home and studio in Les Lauves remains meticulously maintained to honor his memory.
Now in Cézanne's Garden, award-winning garden writer and photographer Derek Fell offers a groundbreaking approach to the study of the man and his art. Setting images of Cézanne's paintings against breathtaking photographs of his garden as it exists today, Fell offers fresh insight into the man, his art, and the natural world that inspired him. Readers will see how Cézanne's unusual garden - a wooded landscape layered with brilliant greens and punctuated by strong structural elements - reflects the artist's innovative theories on color, texture, structure, and light.
Using Cézanne's own letters and the musings of painters who knew him, Fell draws an astonishing portrait of this socially awkward, hardworking man, complete with his favorite outdoor motifs, his favorite still-life subjects, and even his favorite flower: scabiosa. As he traces the development of the artist's career, Fell takes readers on a tour of gardens from Cézanne's early life - the Jas de Bouffan on his family's estate and the nearby Château Noir - as well as from his adult years, namely his garden and studio at Les Lauves, showing how it was then and how it stands now. For the practicing gardener, Fell also shows how to create a Cézanne-like garden of one's own, including how to create favorite Cézanne motifs such as vertical gardens and leaf tunnels.
Beautifully illustrated with more than one hundred original photographs and a dozen Cézanne masterpieces, Cézanne's Garden is a revealing look - using art, photography, and reflection - at one of the world's most cherished artists.
