Maison Maria with a View of Château Noir c. 1895

Paul Cézanne painted ‘Maison Maria with a View of Château Noir’ using oil on canvas with the traditional method of layering paint. Cézanne was particularly interested in the textures, weight and forms of the Provençal landscape. You can see that here, in the way he used brushstrokes to build up a sense of volume and depth. The paint is applied in short, deliberate strokes, almost like the laying of bricks. This gives the painting a kind of architectural quality, fitting for its subject. The choice of oil paint is significant too. It allowed Cézanne to return to the canvas repeatedly, building up layers and refining the forms. It gives the finished work a quality of sustained labor. The traditional processes employed by Cézanne are tied to wider social issues of labor. Through his patient work, he elevated the everyday to the level of art, challenging conventional distinctions between the fine arts and the crafts.