Cézanne (P. Cézanne) - Portraits

When comparing Cézanne’s portraits with those of his contemporary Impressionist painters, one finds that the latter are quite realistic and figurative, whereas Cézanne’s figures are more subjective, concerned with the balanced structure of overall form. Clearly, the figures painted by Cézanne are not merely descriptive but represent a purely formal expressiveness. In his early period (1860–1870), Cézanne’s portraits were marked by strong expressionism. He returned to explore this theme again around 1890; these two works, Woman with a Coffee Pot and The Card Players, are representative of this era and constitute Cézanne’s most brilliant portrait paintings. After twenty years of careful observation of people around him and an exploration of simplified formal painting structures, these two portraits, like his other subjects, achieve perfection within solid and harmonious forms—structures of color and volume.

At first glance, some might say of Woman with a Coffee Pot, “Cézanne cannot paint figures; they are stiff and unrecognizable.” Indeed, laypeople look at appearances, while experts look at technique. For Cézanne, painting a head was no different from painting an apple; the methods for handling natural forms in a simplified manner were the same. Here, the dominant figure is a woman wearing blue clothing, sitting upright at a table with a coffee pot and cups. Her face is expressionless, her heavy hands resting on her apron. Against a background of geometric frames formed by doors and floral tapestries in pale blue-green tones, the woman achieves perfection within monumental vertical and parallel formal organizations. This solid, clear, and timeless visual quality became Cézanne’s most outstanding style.

The Card Players represents a more complex exploration among Cézanne’s portraits, conducted under extraordinary rigorous forms and intellectual exercises in harmonious colors. There are multiple versions of this theme. The Card Players at the National Gallery, London, and the Musée d’Orsay, Paris, depict two men in suits and hats sitting opposite each other at a table playing cards. Set against a background of geometric verticals and horizontals, a bottle of wine placed centrally between the contrasting figures serves as the focal point where their hands meet, forming the visual center of the strict geometric contrast. Within the most perfect forms and structures, color and volume present the highest excellence of painterliness.

The greatest difference between the London and Paris versions of The Card Players lies in the framing of the picture space. The Musée d’Orsay version has a tighter structure and space (the figure on the right is cropped) and is flatter. In the London version, both figures are fully contained within the frame, creating a traditional visual effect of strict geometric contrast.