Cézanne, Paul (1839-1906)
Autoportrait à la casquette (Self-Portrait in a Casquette)
c.1872
Oil on canvas, 53 x 39.7 cm
Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg
Painted in the early 1870s, at a time when Cézanne was closest of all to the Impressionists, this work shows the clear influence of Pissarro, with whom Cézanne worked. The composition in fact recalls Pissarro‘s own “Self-portrait” (Musée d’Orsay, Paris). The free brushstrokes and interest in lighting effects reveal the Impressionist trend in Cézanne‘s work, but the sketchy painting and unclear outlines do not totally break down the weight and solidity with which the artist endowed the objects in his paintings. Even here, in these relatively early works of the Impressionist period, the artist revealed his individual view of art. In the picture Cézanne seems to be older than he in fact was, which was characteristic of him. Perhaps this was due not only to the beard but also to the artist’s state of permanent state of inner tension and loneliness. (SHM)