In the wake of the Armory Show of 1913 that introduced Americans to Cezanne and European Modernism, Man Ray, while living in a small rural art colony near Ridgefield, N.J., drew on the old master's bathers images in "Departure of Summer,” 1914. Art Institute of Chicago.
:In the late Nineteenth Century, as a result of study in Paris or examination of reproductions in this country, ambitious young American painters were exposed to the ideas of the European avant-garde — Cubism, Fauvism and Impressionism. In particular, European titans Claude Monet, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso inspired America's best talents to take up the cause of Modernism.
The artist who most influenced US painters, reclusive French genius Paul Cezanne (1839–1906), served as a bridge between Impressionism and Twentieth Century American Modernism. Most inspiring was his late work, post-1880 masterpieces that Cezanne created after returning from Paris to his native Aix-en-Provence in southern France.
His use of experimental techniques, including vertical brushwork, flattened perspectives, carefully designed compositions, patches of color to define forms and his ability to penetrate beneath the surface to reveal the essence of things, made a lasting impression on up-and-coming American artists. As Cezanne observed, "What I wanted was to make of Impressionism something solid and durable like the art of the museums….[O]ne does not replace the past, one only adds a future link to it."
A key to conveying Cezanne and Modernism across the Atlantic was the celebrated Paris salon of Leo and Gertrude Stein, where visiting Americans were exposed to European avant-garde works. Also important were Claribel and Etta Cone, wealthy, astute sisters from Baltimore, who became friends of the Steins and European Modernists, bought up avant-garde art, and carried the progressive vision across the Atlantic. In New York, gifted photographer and perceptive art impresario Alfred Stieglitz exhibited works by Cezanne, Matisse and Picasso in his 291 gallery, and championed their early American Modernist followers.
Cezanne's astutely composed and solidly constructed still lifes, such as "Five Apples,” 1877–78, set the standard that many tried to emulate. This one measures a mere 4¼ by 10 inches. Collection of Mr and Mrs Eugene V. Thaw.
This fascinating chapter in US art history is effectively documented in "Cezanne and American Modernism." Organized by Gail Stavitsky, chief curator of the Montclair (N.J.) Art Museum, where it opened, and Katherine Rothkopf a senior curator at the Baltimore Museum of Art, where it traveled next, it is currently on view at the Phoenix Art Museum through September 26. "Cezanne and American Modernism" assembles 16 Cezannes with 80 works by 33 American acolytes who helped transform the nation's art at the beginning of the Twentieth Century.
Cezanne's influence can be gauged by the extent to which US artists incorporated his stylistic ideas into works on his favorite subjects: landscapes, still lifes, bathers and portraits.
The most important of Cezanne's followers, Marsden Hartley (1877–1963), worked in all four genres. A peripatetic bachelor from Maine, he painted strong, colorful landscapes of his native state, and traveled widely in Europe, Mexico and the American Southwest in search of artistic inspirations. He admired Rembrandt, van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso and especially Cezanne.
Hartley's respect for Cezanne led him to rent a room for three years in the late 1920s on the estate at Chateau Noir outside Aix, where Cezanne did some of his most inspired work. Seeking to emulate the old master, Hartley depicted the estate's buildings and surroundings, including Mont Sainte-Victoire, the mountain looming over Aix, which was the Frenchman's favorite subject.
