View of Mont Sainte Victoire; verso: Study of a Tree 1885 - 1887

Curator: This delicate watercolor is Paul Cézanne's "View of Mont Sainte-Victoire," currently residing at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: It feels like a half-remembered dream, a landscape barely held together by the faintest of lines. Curator: The mountain, so central to Cézanne's later work, becomes here almost a ghost, a fleeting presence. Perhaps it represents a yearning or the weight of memory itself? Editor: Or perhaps it's simply the artist grappling with form, the planes of color barely hinting at the solid geometry to come. Note how he treats the mountain and the trees in the same manner. Curator: Yes, and observe how the motif of Sainte-Victoire echoes through his oeuvre, almost like a personal myth or an enduring symbol of his Provençal identity. Editor: Ultimately, for me, the unfinished quality is what speaks most profoundly. It's a beautiful example of process made visible. Curator: I agree. It reveals the enduring power of place on the artist's psyche.