Portrait of Madame CézannePortrait of Madame Cézanne

Difficult relationships filled the world of Paul Cézanne (1839-1906). One of his boyhood companions in Aix-en-Provence was Émile Zola, who became a literary critic and acclaimed novelist. A break in the Cézanne-Zola friendship occurred after decades of writing letters, visiting Paris, and Cézanne serving as best man at Zola's wedding. Zola adapted some of Cézanne's personal idiosyncrasies for a character in the novel L’Oeuvre. This portrayal of an oafish, peculiar artist named Claude Lantier (who kills himself) did not sit well with Cézanne. After the rupture of their relationship in 1886, the friends never spoke again. In an editorial in Le Figaro, Zola later decried Cézanne's artistic efforts, calling him “an aborted great talent.” Despite such harsh words, Zola owned as many as 12 of Cézanne's paintings.

The Cézannes also lacked familial harmony. Louis-Auguste Cézanne, Paul's father, started his professional life as a hatter. He was successful not only in sales of his product, but also in a sideline of money lending to his fur suppliers. This allowed him a nouveau riche financial stability and the ability to open a bank when others in Aix failed. Paul Cézanne was Louis-Auguste's first child with his mistress at the time, Anne-Elisabeth Honorine Aubert. She became a wife in 1844, three years after bearing Paul's sister Marie. Another sister, Rose, followed in 1854.

In 1869, when Paul was 30, he met a young seamstress named Hortense Fiquet. Their relationship produced a son, also named Paul (born 1872). Cézanne kept his mistress and their son a secret from his father until 1878, since Cézanne was dependent, even at his advanced age, on the senior Cézanne's not-so-generous allowance of 100 francs per month. It seems ironic that Cézanne felt he had to hide his only serious romantic liaison (and Cézanne père's grandson) from his father who had two illegitimate children of his own before he married his companion (Cézanne's mother).

Hortense, now Cézanne's wife, is the subject of Portrait of Madame Cézanne (cover), which dates from 1890-1892. Cézanne painted as many as 24 portraits of Hortense, though they lived apart for many years of their relationship. In 1890, when this painting is thought to have been given life, the Cézannes visited Switzerland together. Hortense loved her native Switzerland and preferred to stay there rather than the provincial Aix. This trip was Cézanne's first time outside France. After their Swiss adventure, Cézanne built new studios, including ones in Fontainebleu and Les Lauves (north of Aix); he was financially solvent now after the sale of Le Jas de Bouffan (the Cézanne family home). While Cézanne explored different vistas for his art, Hortense and young Paul lived in Paris.

This painting resembles others of Madame Cézanne. She appears more a composition than a portrait: one gains no sense of her personality, her character, her emotion. She is as much an object for Cézanne's interpretation as an apple or a peach from his famous still life paintings (JAMA covers, April 27, 2005, and August 27, 2003). No red or blue dress or yellow armchair frames her face or acts as another focal point of the painting (JAMA covers, January 13, 1999, and January 30, 1978). In French, Hortense means hydrangea, though one sees no flowery reflection in her expression. The vague, almost abstract background lends sobriety to the painting, as does the modest dress, buttoned to the throat. The vertical stripes of her bodice echo the strong shadowy lines just to the side of Madame's head. These stripes seem to appear as an artist's device and not actual adornment of her plain blouse. Her head is set on a pronounced diagonal, bisecting the painting into equal triangles. Is Madame sad, confused, wistful, remorseful in her choice of husband, worried about her now 18-year-old son, or just tired? Is she in mourning for her lost marriage, regretting her faded youth, or composing her daily shopping list? From this portrait the viewer cannot ascertain the essence of Madame, though the essence of the painting radiates mysterious beauty.

The landscape of Cézanne's life seems littered with the remnants of broken bonds: father, friend, wife, and son. Cézanne's best and longest-lasting relationship, though often tumultuous, was with paint and canvas. Cézanne's progeny and legacy are his paintings and the artists who drew their inspiration from him. Cézanne, termed the father of modern art, has “grandchildren” that live in museums, galleries, and private collections worldwide. Such immortality forgives the eccentricities of a distant, sometimes irascible grandpère.