Cezanne's Provence

BEHIND THE SCENES
Chichi villas have replaced farmhouses around Cézanne's Mont Ste-Victoire, and luxury yachts, not barks, dominate Signac's port of Marseilles. But as a new Montreal exhibition approaches, DEANNA MacDONALD finds Provençal landscapes still startle with their beauty, and still echo the masterpieces they inspired

DEANNA MACDONALD
Special to The Globe and Mail
September 17, 2005

AIX-EN-PROVENCE, FRANCE -- On a clear day in Provence in the 1880s, a middle-aged man with an easel and brush stood before a landscape of Mistral-swept cypresses, verdant fields and a craggy mountain. The man was Paul Cézanne, and he was attempting to capture on canvas the illusive nature of Mont Ste-Victoire. One hundred and twenty or so years later, I found myself standing on the same spot near Aix-en-Provence, and, to my surprise and delight, there was Cézanne's mythical mountain, iridescent in the afternoon sun, towering over fields of silken wheat and red poppies. There were a few more olive trees, and the red-tiled rooftops in the distance had become high-priced second homes rather than farmhouses, but the setting was clearly one I had seen before in many of Cézanne's paintings.

There is something reassuring about finding a scene that you have known in a painting; it gives not only a sense of connection with history, but also a palpable sense of relief that at least a small part of the world hasn't become a highway or shopping mall.

Few places can give this sensation like Provence, the sunny muse of many artists. The region has numerous attractions -- climate, cuisine, history -- but it is the sun-kissed landscapes depicted by Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh and others that have always formed my mental image of Provence.

Next week, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts will unveil Right under the Sun: Landscape in Provence, from Classicism to Modernism, 1750-1920. The exhibit explores the effect of Provençal landscapes and light on painters from the Romantics to the Cubists, with some 200 works by van Gogh, Cézanne, Claude Monet, Paul Gauguin, Georges Braque and others.


These are the sort of images that make you dream of travel, of putting yourself in the picture, of seeing whether something so lovely can really exist.

Travelling recently in Provence, I did just that, and discovered that many of the landscapes painted by these artists are still there. In some cases they survive thanks to simple historical chance; others owe their preservation to the clever restorations of local tourist boards.

Despite the occasional intrusion of plaques and souvenir shops, the essential elements of all of these paintings -- the landscapes, light and colours of Provence -- can still startle with their beauty and resemblance to pictures painted more than 100 years ago. The following are four landscapes featured in the Montreal exhibition that haven't changed much from when the artists painted them.

Paul Cézanne

Mont Ste-Victoire (1887-90)

Cézanne once wrote: ". . .to paint from nature is not to paint the subject, but to realize sensations." This could be why his landscapes have the elemental quality of a fleeting sensation or happy memory.

Cézanne's greatest natural challenge was Mont Ste-Victoire, a lone 1,011-metre mountain dominating the landscape near his hometown of Aix-en-Provence. He painted it more than 80 times, trying to capture the essence of what he saw.

On my first glimpse of Mont Ste-Victoire from the Moulin Cézanne -- a stone mill that today houses a gallery on the route du Tholonet a few kilometres east of Aix -- I could understand his fascination. The mountain really does have a peculiar face. Its endless planes of rippling grey, white and beige stone dotted with scrubby green plants were a constantly changing play of light and shadow against a brilliant blue sky.

Mont Ste-Victoire is visible throughout the region, a rolling terrain of farmland and vineyards, and Cézanne painted it from many vantage points, including from Aix. The elegant former capital of Provence -- and today one of the most desirable addresses in France -- Aix is filled with memories of Cézanne. Marked walking routes lead to his birthplace, his family's house (Jas de Bouffant), the Café des deux garçons where he hung out with his friend, Emile Zola, and to the St. Pierre cemetery where he is buried. The atelier he built overlooking the town in 1901 has been converted into a museum, where a path leads up to the viewpoint from which Cézanne often painted the distant Mont Ste-Victorie.

I walked to a small park encircled by posh suburbs, which now commemorates the spot. Despite the urban sprawl, the view remains stunning, and I could understand why Cézanne wrote: "I go into the landscape every day, the subjects are beautiful and I spend my days more pleasantly than anywhere else."

Paul Signac

The Entrance of the Port of Marseille (1918)

Sometimes a painting can make us look at a scene a new way. I've always thought of Marseilles as a grungy, French Connection-like port town. But Paul Signac's pointillist rendition of the city's harbour -- full of white sails, Monet-like pastels and dazzling light -- tells another story. His evocative vision of the ancient port on the cusp of modernization reminded me that this city also has its share of Provençal beauty.

Signac loved to study the changing effects of light and water and often depicted ports, sometimes sketching scenes on the open sea.

Wandering through Marseilles's huge U-shaped Old Port, I immediately recognized the sites and atmosphere of Signac's image. The majestic Fort St-Nicolas and Fort St-Jean still stand as the gateway to the harbour. Hundreds of moored yachts take the place of Signac's working ships, giving the harbour the appearance of a pleasure-boat parking lot, but it is still a picturesque nautical scene of tall masts and colourful flags. Each morning, small fishing boats still dock along the Quai des Belges, and sell the types of fish, such as racasse and St-Pierre, that are used in the famous bouillabaisse served in quay-side restaurants.

And most of all, the Mediterranean light, playing off the water and sails, still shimmers, evoking Signac's dreamy vision of Marseilles's port as the starting point of journeys to faraway lands.

Georges Braque

The Factories of the Rio Tinto

at l'Estaque (1908)

A few kilometres to the west of Marseilles is the community of l'Estaque, which in the late 19th and early 20th century was a small fishing community that attracted artists including Cézanne, André Derain, Raoul Dufy and Georges Braque.

Today a suburb of Marseilles, its small harbour bobbing with white sails and colourful fishing boats, it maintains the air of a small town, and its streets are dotted with plaques memorializing art inspired by its seaside setting and, strangely enough, its factories.

At the turn of the 20th century, l'Estaques had a highly unromantic chemical factory nestled into its craggy hills. Several artists painted it, but it was a cubist image by 26-year-old Braque that struck me. Braque, who, along with Picasso, only a year before had developed the avant-garde cubist style, came here to paint during the summer of 1908.

In this painting, he was inspired by Cézanne, using muted Provençal colours with simplified lines and geometric forms to depict his own experience of the industrialized landscape. Today, the factory is nothing but a few crumbling buildings blending into a now suburban landscape, but there is something about the light and the jumble of rooftops that suggests that Braque's cubist lines had somehow captured the essence of the landscape that even a century of change could not hide.

Vincent van Gogh

Landscape with Wheat Sheaves and the Rising Moon (1889)

Oscar Wilde once said there was no fog in London before Whistler painted it. Following Wilde's theory, it could be said Provençal colour did not exist until van Gogh painted it. The Dutch artist came to Provence hoping to be inspired by the region's light and warmth.

In the two years he spent there (1888 to 1890), his palette went from sombre to dazzling. His most vibrant images come from the year he spent in a mental hospital in the medieval monastery of St. Paul de Mausole on the outskirts of the town of St. Rémy. This was after the infamous ear incident, and his fevered mind took the natural light and beauty of Provence and turned it up full blast. The Alpilles Mountains became wild, indigo waves, wheat fields turned to molten gold, the moon to a ball of fire.

Today, without the help of a hallucinogenic, it would be difficult to see exactly what van Gogh saw. But as I took an in-the-steps-of-van Gogh tour around the lovely grounds of St. Paul de Mausole -- today a psychiatric clinic specializing in, quite appropriately, art therapy -- I still couldn't help but be amazed at the familiarity of the landscapes. It was an overcast afternoon but the windswept hills, olive groves and cypresses still appeared in my mind's eye in the flaming colours of van Gogh's palette.

Perhaps that is the beauty of seeing a landscape through an artist's eyes: we linger and look at things as commonplace as a tree or a starry sky, and perhaps begin to see beyond our usual guidebook glimpses.

Pack your bags

GETTING THERE

Marseilles airport (http://www.mrsairport.com) is conveniently located close to all of the places discussed. Air France (airfrance.ca) flies from Toronto daily to Marseilles via Paris.

GETTING AROUND

From Marseilles, a city bus can take you to the suburb of L'Estaque (about 15 minutes) and a train can take you to Aix-en-Provence (30 to 40 minutes; visit http://www.sncf.com for schedules and fares). However, as St. Rémy de Provence does not have a train station (the nearest is in Avignon, 18 kilometres away), renting a car in Marseilles is the easiest option.

The landscapes I saw are easy to find. Simply visit the local tourist offices and ask for information on painters in Provence:

Aix-en-Provence:

http://www.aixenprovencetourism.com.

Marseilles:

http://www.marseille-tourisme.com.

L'Estaque: http://www.estaque.com.

St. Rémy de Provence:

http://www.saintremy-de-provence.com.

WHERE TO STAY

Hôtel des Augustins: 3 rue de la Masse, Aix-en-Provence; 33 (4) 4227 2859; http://www.hotel-augustins.com. Situated close to Cézanne's favourite hangout, the Café des deux garçons. Doubles start at $120.

New Hôtel Vieux-Port: 3 rue Reine-Elisabeth, Marseilles; 33 (4) 9199 2323; http://www.new-hotel.com. Overlooks the port. Doubles from $165.

Hotel Château des Alpilles: Ancienne Rte. du Gres, St. Rémy de Provence; 33 (4) 9092 0333, chateau.alpilles@wanadoo.fr. A short drive from van Gogh's St. Paul de Mausole. Doubles from $240.

MORE INFORMATION

Provence Tourism:

http://www.visitprovence.com.

Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur Regional Tourism: http://www.crt-paca.fr.

Atelier Paul Cézanne: 9 Ave. Paul Cézanne, Aix-en-Provence; 33 (4) 4221 0653; http://www.atelier-cezanne.com. In 2006, the 100th anniversary of Cézanne's death will be marked by major exhibitions and performances in Aix-en-Provence. For more information, visit http://www.cezanne-2006.com.

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts: mmfa.qc.ca . To glimpse Provence in Canada, visit Right under the Sun: Landscape in Provence, from Classicism to Modernism, 1750-1920, in Montreal from Sept. 22 to Jan. 8.