Chateau Noir 1904

Paul Cézanne made this painting of the Château Noir with oil on canvas, but really, it feels like he built it. Look at the brushstrokes; they're like individual tiles laid carefully to build up the form, the light, and even the air around the chateau. There's a real physicality to the paint, a sense of its own weight and texture. It’s not about illusion, but about the real, material act of painting, of building up an image from discrete marks. I’m drawn to the way the green foliage bleeds into the blue of the sky, that blurry edge, and how the solid, geometric form of the building emerges out of that haze, like a half-remembered dream. In a way, it reminds me of Guston's late work. Cézanne wasn't afraid to let a painting be unresolved. To let it remain a question, rather than a statement.