Birth of Paul Cézanne

Paul Cézanne was born on 19 January 1839 in Aix-en-Provence. A French painter from Aix-en-Provence, Cézanne began among the Impressionists but sought, in his own words, to make of Impressionism something solid and lasting. He built his paintings from patches of colour and simplified geometric forms, as in his many views of Mont Sainte-Victoire, his still lifes of apples and his series The Card Players and The Bathers. His reworking of space and perspective had an enormous influence on Picasso, Matisse and the Cubists, and he is often called the father of modern painting. He worked in relative isolation in Provence, and recognition came late in his life.

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