The Artist's Father, Reading L'Evenement

Paul Cezanne is one of the renowned post-impressionist painters of the 19th century. He is popular for his intense portraits, awesome landscapes and complex still life images. In this piece of art, Paul showcases a man reading a newspaper while sitting in an oversized chair.

The image is set in a dark background. This character in the image is not looking at the audience but rather focused on the paper he is reading. This portrait depicts the painter's father, called Louis-Auguste Cezanne. He was a banker who never approved of his son’s profession as he found it impractical. At a young age, the family had asked Paul to join a career in banking or finance. Since the young painter had refused to follow the footsteps of the father, the relationship between the two was never cordial. This played a part in the drawing of this image.

In the image, the character was placed at the edge of the seat, in a position where he was almost tipping over. The chair has an extended right leg, which is different from the seats at the period. This floor also looks tilted forward. A combination of all these give an impression of someone who is sliding towards the viewer. It is believed that the shift in equilibrium was a way for Cezanne to illustrate the tension between the two. The name of the newspaper, L'Evénement, was a tribute to Cezanne's friend and novelist called Emile Zola.

He was a friend since childhood and helped Cezanne study in Paris. Emile later became a critic of the newspaper. Interestingly, in the year that the painting was completed, 1886, the painter’s father was not customarily reading the publication. The painting shown on the back wall was one of the still images the Cezanne recently painted before the painting in question. This image is said to be a way that Cezanne asserted his independence from the crawls of being told what to do with his life. This is the main inspiration for his work. This is one of the pieces that shot Paul to fame.

Inspiration for His Works

Paul Cezanne is said to the pioneer of the colour theory. The Artist's Father, Reading L'Evenement and other paintings from him are said to have inspired painters' generations down the line. Some of the artists that were inspired by his works ort include Henri Matisse, Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Robert Motherwell, Cy Twombly and Richard Diebenkorn. All these painters followed Cezanne's ways of placing importance on Form, colour and line when making their portraits. This composition made images look truly vivid just like the way human eyes see the objects. You can have a look at the image in the National Gallery in Washington, DC.