Book Description

Excerpt from The Art of Cezanne The problem of the observer is to recognize this individuality and to share the values communicated in and through it. He must be able to identify plastic form when he encounters it in a picture, that is, to distinguish between an organic union of insights won by personal experience, and plastic clichés assembled according to a stereotyped formula. He must, in brief, learn to see, and the process is long and arduous, involving as it does constant practice in the sharpening of perceptions of color, of the play of light and shadow, of the sequence and rhythm of line and mass, of the inter relationships between these factors that endow each of them with meaning. It requires a knowledge of the traditions of painting and of the technical means by which the artist works. Competently applied, the process yields results inaccessible to casual or un trained observation, and when guided by scientific method it de velops an objective criterion or standard of judgment of the same order of certitude as the findings of pure science. Our efforts to apply the scientific method to a study of Cé zaune's work has required a detailed examination of his technique and form, as they emerged throughout the course of his develop ment. The investigation began twenty-five years ago, and by 1925 had reached a stage that seemed to warrant publication of a sec tion, entitled The Development of Cézanne's Technique, in the first edition of our book The Art in Painting. 1 This chapter was omitted from subsequent editions because continued study of a steadily increasing number of Cézanne's pictures showed the data upon which it was based to have been inadequate. Our study, as presented herewith, amplifies the earlier investigation by including the significant findings of detailed analyses of practically all of Cézanne's important paintings, from the beginning to the end of his career. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.