Portrait of the Artist 

Paul Cézanne created this self-portrait with graphite on paper. The image is dominated by a play of light and shadow across the artist’s face, achieved through dense, directional hatching. Notice how Cézanne constructs form through short, parallel lines, a technique that builds volume and suggests the underlying structure of his head. Cézanne's method destabilizes traditional portraiture. He isn’t aiming for a likeness in the conventional sense, but rather exploring the interplay of planes and volumes. The hatching, while descriptive, also asserts the flatness of the paper, creating a tension between representation and abstraction. This tension echoes the broader artistic concerns of Cézanne’s time, as artists grappled with new ways of seeing and representing the world, influenced by emerging scientific and philosophical ideas about perception. Consider how this drawing reflects Cézanne's interest in the structural underpinnings of what we see. The self-portrait invites us to reconsider the act of looking itself, recognizing that art doesn't simply mirror reality, but actively shapes our understanding of it.