View of the Château Noir
circa 1887 - 1890
Cézanne was utterly obsessed with this gloomy, ruined building near his home in Aix-en-Provence, even renting it for a while just to paint the surroundings. Far from a fairytale castle, the 'Château Noir' was a jagged structure that perfectly suited his desire to break nature down into geometric forms. Here, his Post-Impressionist process is laid bare: loose sketch lines outline the architecture while watery washes of blue and green suggest the foliage, capturing the atmospheric mood rather than a photorealistic copy.
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