Cézanne
A life
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Profile Books Ltd
Published:3rd Oct '13
Should be back in stock very soon
A remarkable biography of the cultural icon, Paul Cézanne
Today we view Cezanne as a monumental figure, but during his lifetime (1839-1906), many did not understand him or his work. This book tells the story of an artist who was never accepted into the official Salon: he was considered a revolutionary at best and a barbarian at worst, whose paintings were unfinished, distorted and strange.Today we view Cézanne as a monumental figure, but during his lifetime (1839-1906), many did not understand him or his work. With brilliant insight, drawing on a vast range of primary sources, Alex Danchev tells the story of an artist who was never accepted into the official Salon: he was considered a revolutionary at best and a barbarian at worst, whose paintings were unfinished, distorted and strange. His work sold to no one outside his immediate circle until his late thirties, and he maintained that 'to paint from nature is not to copy an object; it is to represent its sensations' - a belief way ahead of his time, with stunning implications that became the obsession of many other artists and writers, from Matisse and Braque to Rilke and Gertrude Stein. Beginning with the restless teenager from Aix who was best friends with Emile Zola at school, Danchev carries us through the trials of a painter tormented by self-doubt, who always remained an outsider, both of society and the bustle of the art world. Cézanne: A life delivers not only the fascinating days and years of the visionary who would 'astonish Paris with an apple', with interludes analysing his self-portraits, but also a complete assessment of Cézanne's ongoing influence through artistic imaginations in our own time. He is, as this life shows, a cultural icon comparable to Monet or Toulouse.
Danchev's Cézanne has... virtues of imaginative sympathy, independence of mind, and wide scholarship. He writes as if Cézanne's life and character are as immediately present before him as is the art -- Julian Barnes * TLS *
A brave new life of Cézanne ... much of this new material successfully illuminates Cézanne's inner life. An important book * Sunday Times *
Enlightening . . . Accomplished and subtle -- Michael Prodger * Mail on Sunday *
This is a great book - possibly the best - on one of the most respected impressionists * Bookseller *
The most engrossing biography of an artist that I have read for years. With lightness of touch, depth of thought, a vast cultural hinterland and an assured understanding of painting, Danchev marvellously brings to life Cézanne the man, as well as the pioneering artist called "the father of us all" by Picasso. -- Jackie Wullschlager * FT *
A magisterial biography -- Jonathan Lopez * Wall Street Journal *
A new view of an old subject ... an impressive achievement -- Christian House * Independent on Sunday *
This is the best account of [Cézanne's] astonishing career and Danchev responds to the challenge with great sensitivity and genuine brio. This is a book which will survive the test of time. -- John Golding CBE, Emeritus Professor of the Royal Academy
Alex Danchev compellingly guides us through Paul Cezanne's much mythologized life from his over-bearing father and early days in the South, as a school friend of Emile Zola, to his position as one of the revered creators of modern painting. The development of Cezanne's thinking and the construction of his paintings are explored alongside his complex relationship with other painters and the Parisian art establishment. Danchev has a great ability to weave his research and analysis into a compelling narrative: understanding what was required for Cezanne to make art modern. -- Sandy Nairne, National Portrait Gallery
A fantastically multidimensional Cézanne. . . . reads much like . . . one of Paul Cézanne's paintings . . . Mr. Danchev's portrait of Cezanne's life is heavy, thick with deceptively simple detail, and unendingly rich in offering context and detail for the reader to make sense of what contexts surrounded Cézanne, how Cezanne understood himself, and how the surrounding artistic milieu and climate informed Cezanne's paintings . . . Cezanne, A Life is a compelling and well-written biography of an enduring, enigmatic and complex figure in the changing world of turn-of-the-20th-century modernist art. -- Dr Lydia Pyne * New York Journal of Books *
An enchanting literary exercise... exquisite in style... romantic, intense, affectionate and occasionally wry... a masterpiece. -- Brian Sewell * Evening Standard *
- Winner of Apollo Magazine Book of the Year 2013 (UK)
- Short-listed for Spear's Book Awards 2013 (UK)
- Short-listed for Library of Virginia Literary Awards 2013 (UK)
- Short-listed for American Library in Paris Award 2013 (UK)
ISBN: 9781846681707
Dimensions: 240mm x 152mm x 40mm
Weight: 714g
512 pages
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