Flowers in a Blue Vase
Painted in Auvers-sur-Oise, around 1873-1875, when Cezanne was closest of all to the Impressionists, this painting reveals how the artist's palette was becoming considerably lighter than in the dark and heavy paintings canvases of the 1860s. The artist uses vibrant colour reflections and the texture has become mobile and active. At the same time the solidity of form and density of the paint serve not so much to fix a passing impression of nature as to bring out nature's unchanging qualities. Cezanne took part in the Impressionist exhibitions and was the friend of the group's members, but with his very different vision of the world, which already appeared in these works from his Impressionist period, Cezanne was bound to move away from them artistically. He was to go his own way, to discover an approach which is almost "Classical" in its sense of weight and permanence.
Between 1873 and 1875
Oil on canvas
55.2 x 46.0cm
Image and text © The Hermitage Museum