Mont Saint Victoire

Mont Saint Victoire, by Paul Cezanne. 1887

 

One of my favorite places in France is Provence. Yes, I know. It’s not like I dis­cov­ered it, of course. It’s been a very pop­u­lar des­ti­na­tion for … well, cen­turies. But espe­cially in the mod­ern era. Popularized best, per­haps, by painters such as Paul Cezanne and Vincent Van Gogh, and more recently by writ­ers such as Peter Mayle. I recently watched a movie of one of his nov­els, A Good Year, star­ring Marion Cotillard (Vie En Rose), Abbie Cornish (Somersault) and Russell Crowe (A Beautiful Mind). It tells the story of a London Master of the Universe who returns to his boy­hood home in Provence, falls in love all over again with the land and its peo­ple, espe­cially Marion Cotillard, and has to make some seri­ous deci­sions. A good, not great movie … but evoca­tive of place and a state of mind. As in, I truly wanted to move there after see­ing it first hand, and again after see­ing the movie.

Of course, own­ing a vine­yard, hav­ing a won­der­ful old house and liv­ing with Abbie or Marion adds a cer­tain some­thing to the attrac­tion, but Cezanne’s Provence is appeal­ing with­out that as well.

Why? Aside from the tremen­dous vari­ety of land­scape, the beau­ti­ful val­leys, moun­tains, hills and the Mediterranean Sea … there is much his­tory there. Roman ruins, Celtic mark­ers, Castles, Avignon of the Popes, Napoleonic bat­tles, Van Gogh’s Arles. His Night Café. And more.

The movie reminded me of the won­der­ful food to be had there, with its rich agri­cul­ture and close­ness to the sea. And, of course, wine. Great wine. There is a sym­bio­sis in the air between nature, humans, even build­ings. The build­ings fit.

 

Gordes, Provence

The Village of Gordes, Vaucluse, France. Photo by J. M. Rosier.

 

Cezanne caught their essence again and again, show­ing how they coex­isted with the trees and the hills and the vibrant col­ors, mes­mer­ized by the sun. There is a rhythm of life there that falls in with the sea­sons and the har­vest and is easy to roman­ti­cize, mag­netic. Encourages the roman­tic. Easier because it has the ingre­di­ents for end­less day dreams about a bet­ter life, a more har­mo­nious exis­tence, closer to the soil and the ancient shores of the dawn of Western Civilization.

 

Cezanne's L'Estaque

Cezanne’s L’Estaque. 1885.

 

Will talk a bit more about Cezanne and his paint­ings in the days to come. His impact on the his­tory of paint­ing. On Modernism. On Abstract Art.

 

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