Self-Portrait 1895

Paul Cézanne created this intimate oil on canvas self-portrait sometime during his career; it's now held in a private collection. Notice how Cézanne constructs form through color. Each brushstroke is a deliberate block, building volume and space. The face isn’t a smooth, idealized surface but a collection of planes and angles. The background dissolves into abstract patches of color, further emphasizing the constructed nature of the image. This challenges traditional representation, moving away from illusionism towards a focus on the materiality of paint and the act of seeing. Cézanne's radical approach to form and perception opened the way for later movements such as Cubism. His work asks us to reconsider how we perceive the world, not as a fixed reality, but as something constructed through our senses and represented through artistic form.