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Paul Cezanne, 'In the Bibémus Quarry', 1900-04

About the work

In the 1890s and early 1900s, Cezanne painted numerous views of the Bibémus Quarry. Situated not far from Aix-en-Provence, the site was renowned since Antiquity for its yellow-ochre limestone. But while the artist was mesmerised by the quarry’s chromatic qualities, he also had personal and intellectual reasons to explore this motif. Having spent time in the area as a child, Cezanne had a special connection to Bibémus. Moreover, these rock formations, dating ten to eight million years ago, appealed to his deep interest in Prehistory: ‘In order to paint a landscape well, I first need to discover its geological foundations’, he once wrote to a friend. Of the eleven oils and sixteen watercolours belonging to the series, this is the only one featuring a human presence. Sitting centrally on some eroded rocks, this tiny figure gives a sense of the scale of the massive cliff.

Key facts

Full title
In the Bibémus Quarry
Artist
Paul Cezanne
Artist dates
1839 - 1906
Date made
1900-04
Medium and support
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
79 × 63.5 cm
Acquisition credit
On loan from a private collection
Inventory number
L1330
Location
Room 44
Image copyright
On loan from a private collection, © Private Collection
Collection
Main Collection

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

More works by Paul Cezanne

(Showing 6 of 13 works)
An Old Woman with a Rosary
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Paul Cezanne
A old women, her gaze unfocused, clutches a rosary – a string of beads used in prayer – tightly in her hands. According to the writer Joachim Gasquet, the sitter was a former nun who had escaped from a convent, wandering aimlessly until Cezanne took her on as a servant.Gasquet found this painting...
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Avenue at Chantilly
Avenue at Chantilly
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Cezanne spent several months over the summer of 1888 working in and around Chantilly, some 24 miles north of Paris. This is one of three similar oil paintings of the park surrounding the chateau that he produced during his stay. The symmetry and spatial depth of this view may have appealed to him...
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Bathers (Les Grandes Baigneuses)
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Paul Cezanne
Around 200 of Cezanne’s works depict male and female nude bathers, either singly or in groups, in a landscape. This large painting is one of three pictures of female bathers that Cezanne worked on during the final decade of his life. They represent the culmination of his lifelong investigation of...
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Curtain, Jug and Dish of Fruit
Curtain, Jug and Dish of Fruit
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In the early 1890s, Cezanne repeatedly painted the same set of objects in the isolation of his studio – fruit, dishes, cloths, and a water jug – to render them from different perspectives and interrogate their formal properties. In this picture, Cezanne introduces subtle effects of distortion to...
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Hillside in Provence
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The wall of angular, jutting rock formations in this painting may represent a quarry, with the cuttings revealing geological strata. While the hillside is somewhere in Cezanne’s native Provence, the specific location has not been conclusively identified.Stylistically, the painting relates to scen...
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Landscape with Poplars
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This painting is of a summer landscape in Cezanne’s native Provence in the south of France. Like the Impressionists, Cezanne was interested in depicting the landscape primarily using touches of colour. Although this painting shows Cezanne’s debt to Impressionism, his method is more controlled. Fo...
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Self Portrait
Self Portrait
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Paul Cezanne was about 40 years old when he painted this self portrait in Paris around 1880–1. He was now middle-aged with a family to support, and the intensity of his earlier self portraits has here given way to a more distant and reflective presence. Although relatively small, the portrait has...
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Still Life with Water Jug
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The Avenue at the Jas de Bouffan
The Avenue at the Jas de Bouffan
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The Grounds of the Château Noir
The Grounds of the Château Noir
Paul Cezanne
The Château Noir was a rambling house situated in extensive grounds near Aix-en-Provence in the south of France. Surrounded by wild vegetation, the run-down, isolated chateau offered Cezanne many subjects, and it became one of his favourite locations. He rented a small room in the house from 1897...
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The Painter's Father, Louis-Auguste Cezanne
The Painter's Father, Louis-Auguste Cezanne
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An older man sits, legs crossed and head bowed, absorbed in his reading. This is Cezanne’s father, Louis-Auguste. He was probably in his early sixties when his son painted this portrait directly onto an alcove wall in the salon of Jas de Bouffan, the country residence outside Aix-en-Provence that...
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The Sea at L'Estaque
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The Stove in the Studio
The Stove in the Studio
Paul Cezanne
During the 1860s Cezanne divided his time between his family home in Aix-en-Provence and Paris, where this picture was probably painted. It evokes the privation of his Bohemian existence in the capital. Cezanne has rearranged the objects in his studio, and we see them from a high viewpoint, as th...
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You've viewed 6 of 13 works