Skip to main content

Ways of Making: Practice and Innovation in Cézanne's Paintings in the National Gallery

Elisabeth Reissner
Technical Bulletin Volume 29, 2008

Abstract 

The article on Cézanne explores his sustained engagement with the question of what it is to ‘represent’ at a particular historical moment. It describes his refinement of an experimental painting practice that balanced control of means with a state of open-ended possibility or uncertainty. Close scrutiny of the paintings’ surfaces and technical study of the evolution of the National Gallery Cézannes enabled a critical reading of secondary accounts of Cézanne’s practice and his own theoretical statements. The article also investigates the ways in which Cézanne chose to use his materials, not to copy or reproduce nature but to give ‘concrete expression to his sensory experiences’.

Keywords

Cézanne, Cézanne’s materials, Cézanne’s painting technique, Cézanne’s palette, Impressionist technique, National Gallery Cézannes, nineteenth-century colour merchants, nineteenth-century painting technique

Download article

Ways of Making: Practice and Innovation in Cézanne's Paintings in the National Gallery, Elisabeth Reissner (PDF 28MB)

To cite this article we suggest using

Reissner, E. 'Ways of Making: Practice and Innovation in Cézanne's Paintings in the National Gallery'. National Gallery Technical Bulletin Vol 29, pp 4–30.
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/technical-bulletin/reissner2008

 

Problems opening files? Get Adobe Reader [External link]