Bathers at Rest 1904

Paul Cézanne made this small oil painting of bathers at rest, with lots of visible brushstrokes and touches of green and brown. It has that Cézanne vibe, where he’s clearly trying to figure out how to capture what he sees, or thinks he sees. I like to imagine Cézanne working on this, outside maybe, squinting in the bright light of Aix-en-Provence, trying to wrangle these figures into some kind of order. I can feel him asking questions. Look how he laid down these marks, all these little strokes to describe form and shadow. The paint isn’t too thick, but you can see each stroke doing its work. See the standing figure on the right? It's like Cézanne is building a structure, block by block, trying to make it hold. He’s one of those artists who made it possible for the rest of us to even be artists!