Cézanne's Provence

Mont Sainte-Victoire, the Bibémus quarry and Cézanne's studio at Les Lauves — and where Cézanne's paintings are today

Paul Cézanne was born in Aix-en-Provence in 1839 and painted the same stretch of country for the rest of his life: Mont Sainte-Victoire east of town, the Bibémus quarry at its edge, and the studio he built on the Les Lauves hillside. He broke what he saw into patches of colour laid side by side, building volume with warm and cool — the road called “construction”, and the beginning of modern painting. This page walks you through Cézanne's Provence: the mountain, the quarry, the studio and the family house, and tells you where the paintings hang today.

Where: Aix-en-Provence, France, and its surroundings: Mont Sainte-Victoire, the Bibémus quarry, Les Lauves
Open: Cézanne's studio (Atelier de Cézanne) and the Musée Granet are open year-round — check the official calendars
Signature works: Mont Sainte-Victoire · Cézanne's Card Players · Still Life with Apples · Cézanne's Bathers · Bibémus Quarry
Where to see: Musée d'Orsay · Musée de l'Orangerie · Metropolitan Museum · Musée Granet

1Mont Sainte-Victoire: the mountain he painted all his life

From the east side of Aix the white ridge of Mont Sainte-Victoire hangs on the horizon. Cézanne painted it again and again from the 1870s, leaving more than eighty oils and watercolours. The further he went, the less it looked like a “view”: the ridge breaks into oblique patches, the pines and red earth of the foreground flatten into geometry. He returned to the same vantage points almost every year until, in 1906, he collapsed while painting outdoors and died a few days later.

2Cézanne's Bibémus quarry: a seam of colour patches

Cézanne's Bibémus quarry lies east of Aix and became a core subject of his late work. In 1895 he rented a cabin inside it and set his easel up against walls of ochre and rust. The rock faces are themselves patches laid side by side — exactly his method of building volume with colour: ochre, rust red and olive green in rows, with a touch of blue-violet only in the shadows. The quarry still keeps its rock walls and paths today.

3Cézanne's studio at Les Lauves

In 1901 Cézanne built himself a studio on the Les Lauves hillside north of Aix, and finally had a settled place to work. Its big north window gives an even light; there he painted Mont Sainte-Victoire, Cézanne's Bathers, the pots and apples around him, until his death. Today it opens to the public as the Atelier de Cézanne, with easel, pigments, plaster casts and still-life props arranged as he left them.

4Where are Cézanne's paintings today

The Musée d'Orsay and the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris hold a great number of the mature works; the Musée Granet in Aix, the same town as the studio, keeps several oils and a large body of drawings, and is the closest place in Provence to see Cézanne's paintings. MoMA and the Met in New York, the National Gallery and the Courtauld in London, the Pushkin in Moscow and the Hermitage in St Petersburg all hold important works, with more scattered through private collections.

5Cézanne and Zola: from friendship to silence

Cézanne and the writer Émile Zola met as schoolboys in Aix, skipping class by the river and arguing about painting and literature. Zola went to Paris first and brought Cézanne into the impressionist circle. In 1886 Zola published the novel L'Œuvre, whose painter was read as a portrait of Cézanne — and thirty years of friendship went quiet. Looking back, it reads like a shared memory of every Aix schoolboy: the same river bank, two different moderns.

Build this landscape into a card

The studio's palettes are distilled from the rock of Mont Sainte-Victoire, the ochre of the Bibémus quarry and the pines of the garden at Les Lauves — pick one and build a Provence card of your own.

Paint with Provence palettes See the gallery of Cézanne-style cards Cézanne's studio, and where his paintings live

Cézanne's Provence — frequently asked questions

Where is Mont Sainte-Victoire?

It is a limestone ridge east of Aix-en-Provence in France, hanging on the horizon above the plain. Cézanne painted it again and again from the 1870s, leaving more than eighty oils and watercolours; his late vantage points were mostly near Les Lauves, north of the town.

Can you visit Cézanne's studio?

Yes. The studio at Les Lauves (Atelier de Cézanne) has been a museum since 1954: easel, pigments, tools, plaster casts and still-life props are arranged as they were when he died in 1906, and the big north window still gives the room its even light.

Where are Cézanne's paintings today?

The Musée d'Orsay and the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris hold the great group; the Musée Granet in Aix is the closest to his studio. MoMA and the Met in New York, the National Gallery and the Courtauld in London, and museums in Moscow and St Petersburg hold many more, along with private collections worldwide.

What was the relationship between Cézanne and Zola?

They met as schoolboys in Aix and were close friends for thirty years; Zola opened the impressionist circle to Cézanne when he moved to Paris. Zola's 1886 novel L'Œuvre was read as a portrait of Cézanne, and the friendship cooled — still the most-told story in Aix about its two famous sons.

Did Cézanne really say he would astonish Paris with an apple?

The famous line comes down to us through second-hand reports, so the wording is debated — but he did exactly that with still life. Painting the apples, pots and cloth on his table again and again, he turned fruit into solid “things” built from patches of colour, and still life into the beginning of modern painting.

Every page in both languages: the studio, Cézanne's Provence, his paintings and the museums that hold them today.