Paul Cézanne Drawings and watercolors

Lloyd, a well-known art historian and former curator at the Ashmolean in Oxford and surveyor of the Queen's Pictures, is an expert in Impressionism and particularly Pissarro (drawings and watercolors) and Degas. The present volume traces Cézanne's life and the development of his style through his graphics. Cézanne made no distinction between paintings and works on paper in his search for a solution to problems in the depiction of reality. Much of Cézanne's search drew on the study of previous art: the Venetian Renaissance, Rubens, Delacroix, Daubigny, Monticelli, Courbet, and the Impressionists Manet, Monet, Renoir, and Pissarro. Lloyd traces them all and shows readers Cézanne's stylistic changes, particularly the most influential, his application of color patches. The book is organized in six chapters--"Past Masters," "The Impact of Impressionism," "Portraying the Individual," "In Pursuit of the Human Figure," "Searching for the Ideal Landscape," "The Ultimate Contract in Still Life." Two hundred watercolors and drawings are illustrated at the back, of good quality and effective in spite of their comparatively small size. A list of past exhibitions and a partial bibliography are included. Summing Up: Recommended. All readership levels. --Eric E. Hirshler, Denison University