Documentary: on Arte, the painter Paul Cézanne in his Aix region
Closely connected to the Impressionists in his early days in Paris, Paul Cézanne remained steadfastly attached to his native Provence. By retracing the career of this banker's son, who preferred to embrace painting rather than succeed his father, this documentary, broadcast on Arte to coincide with the major exhibition dedicated to the painter by the city of Aix-en-Provence, focuses on the places in Aix that inspired him.
The Jas de Bouffan, the family country house where the young Cézanne practiced his brushes by decorating the entire living room, has just revealed its last secrets. While most of his paintings had been detached and sold to major museums, the city of Aix-en-Provence – today's owner – has unearthed from beneath the plaster a representation of a harbor entrance, a medallion decorated with a Venus, and colorful plasterwork, which it is now revealing to visitors.
Another key site for Cézanne was the Aix Museum, where he learned to draw and discovered, in particular, The Card Players by the Le Nain brothers, a motif used in several of his works. But of course, it was above all the surrounding landscapes, from the Bibémus quarries to the Sainte-Victoire mountain, which, with their powerful geology, would provide him with his favorite motifs. Grit Lederer's camera lingers there in the company of Jérémie Setton, a professor at the École supérieure d'art d'Aix, and his students.
It also gives voice to Philippe Cézanne, the painter's great-grandson, as well as to the art historian Denis Coutagne, who worked greatly in Aix to ensure the artist's recognition, and then to his successor at the head of the Granet Museum, Bruno Ély. A painter with a knife, prefiguring Cubism with his geometrization of forms, Cézanne, today celebrated, was long misunderstood in his country because his innovations were far too radical.
La Croıx
