Pine Tree
1882-1885
Cézanne wrestles with the twisted form of a pine tree here, likely sketching en plein air in the rugged landscape of Provence. Instead of a polished finish, he uses rapid, scratching strokes to map out the gnarled branches and heavy, drooping foliage, leaving much of the paper bare. It feels like a snapshot of his eye darting across the subject, trying to capture the underlying geometry of nature before the light changed. These raw, structural sketches were the secret laboratory where he figured out how to break the world into shapes, eventually paving the way for Cubism.
- Technique
- Graphite on paper
- Material
- Paper
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