Child in a Straw Hat 1902

This is Paul Cézanne’s ‘Child in a Straw Hat’, and it’s difficult to date. Cézanne has this way of making paintings which feel so rooted in process, like they’re constantly building and shifting. You can see that in the brushwork here; the surface has these little hatches of color, almost like he’s weaving the form together. It’s all about how he's registering what he sees. Look closely, and you'll see how the planes of color create the child’s face and clothing. There’s a tension between the flatness of the picture plane and the illusion of depth. Check out the way he’s described the straw hat; there’s no real detail, but it’s so present, so real. In terms of other artists, this makes me think of Manet, another painter who was interested in the dialogue between surface and depth. Like Manet, Cézanne lets the painting remain a painting, embracing ambiguity rather than trying to create a perfect illusion.