Paul Czanne - Marie Tompkins Lewis

Paul Czanne (1839 - 1906) painted almost 200 portra its, including twenty - six of himself and
twenty - nine of his wife . This book presents
twenty - four 'highlights' from a major international
exhibition that
explores the portraiture of this remarkable artist, whom both Matisse and
Picasso called 'the father of us all'. In bringing together a broad selection of Czanne's portraits, the book
reveal s arguably the
most personal , and therefore
most human, aspect of his art, and one
that has hitherto received
surprisingly little attention. They range from
the artist 's earliest
surviving self - portrait ,
dating from the
1860s, through
portraits of his uncle Dominique, his wife Hortense, his son Paul and
a range of friends and associates,
to his final portrait of Vallier, the gardener at his hou se near
Aix - en - Provence,
made
shortly before
the artist's death in 1906. The art historian
Mary Tompkins Lewis , author of
Czanne : Art
and Ideas (200 0 ) and
Czanne's
Early Imagery ( 1989 ) , contributes an
illuminating introductory essay on
the artist and his portraiture for a genera l readership. Also included is an illustrated chronology of
Czanne's life and work .