The Art Institute of Chicago Illinois displays Paul Cezanne’s painting The Bay of Marseilles Seen From L’Estaque (1885). This two-dimensional, oil-on-canvas painting measures 80. Two times one hundred. 6cm. It is one of several paintings depicting a small village in south France, Marseille. Cezanne placed the image at a high point so the viewer could see the village rooftops. Behind the buildings is a large body, which has hills to the distant. Cezanne frequented the Bay of Marseille during his lifetime, which inspired him to create these paintings.
The image is divided in four zones. The center area is dominated by the blue water body. It gives the image a flat look. Mountains are softened with their wavy appearances, and by the light they use. Cezanne said that the landscape arrangement and colors here fascinate him. Red rooftops overlooking the blue ocean… It seems like the sun shines in this place in a variety of colors. Roger Fry, an English critic and painter who studied Cezanne’s works and rejected the dominant modes of criticism. Cezanne thought a picture was a piece of painting. Fry believed form was more important than subject matter. Cezanne’s work was close to this formal expression. His use of line and tone to create a sense structure in his compositions is a good example. Cezanne tried to show that color could achieve form. It was difficult to observe the contour lines of nature when painting with thick layers. Cezanne uses a blueish-gray paint tone to create contours. He arranges the paint so that it acts with the space surrounding it, giving it an amplitude. His expressive brush strokes create vibrating effects within his contour lines, which seem slightly apart from his forms’ edges. This effect gives the pieces a weight and gives them a solidity. Fry also explains how simplicity and objects can create an understandable image that communicates a vivid sense if life.
Maurice Merleau Ponty, philosopher, has a different take on Cezanne’s application. Merleau-Ponty’s article Cezanne Doubt discusses how sensations can produce chaotic and spontaneous appearances and how the brain organizes them into a coherent whole. Cezanne captures what it means to ‘be’, before our preconceived notions and biases cloud it. Merleau Ponty uses Cezanne to help him make sense of the world. Cezanne reflects on experience, the way in which confusing and vibrating appearances can be transferred. Cezanne’s works used color and form in order to convey a “lived-perspective”, a deeper understanding of human experience.
Merleau-Ponty notes that Cezanne used local tones to create contrast between objects. This helps us perceive nature more naturally. The appearance of complementary colours heightens each others; this effect is evident in The Bay of Marseilles where contrasting reds-browns are used with blue-greens. The phenomenon of the act or seeing is hard to explain as each person’s experience will be different. Merleau Ponty is deeply influenced by Cezanne’s experience and knowledge of perception, and how perception can transform into art-making. Merleau Ponty views a phenomenon as something that we experience. Cezanne can help us experience this.
Merleau–Ponty and Fry take Cezanne’s work very differently. Fry views the art as art and does not read into its technique. Merleau Ponty attempts to place the painting within a deeper context. We use processors to organize our perceptions and Cezanne captures those exact moments before they are transferred. Fry, Merleau Ponty and the art-making process are where they have similarities. Merleau-Ponty believes that Cezanne captured the moment he applied paint to his life. Fry mentions Cezanne’s method of applying paint, noting both the expressive and brush stroke effects. Cezanne’s bold brush strokes, hatching methods and the use pallet knives are some of the key elements that bring attention to this work.
Paul Cezanne’s The Bay of Marseilles, Seen at L’Estaque. This theme is pure and uncomplicated. The space is created by a combination of cool and warm colors. It’s built using block-like brush strokes to create the space. Roger Fry, Merleau-Ponty, and Roger Fry have different views on what is key to Cezanne’s compositions. However, they all agree that art can be viewed as an expression of your personal experience.
