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Rocks, c. 1867-70
Watercolour and bodycolour
Cézanne’s view of the Provencal landscape was coloured by an awareness of the events in geological time that had shaped it.
In this view of rock formations in his native Provence, Cézanne is careful to record one of the geological peculiarities of the area: the brown sandstone that has been weathered into round, boulder-like formations. It was painted not long after meeting Antoine-Fortuné Marion, whose own researches in geology and paleontology were influenced by his reading of Charles Lyell and Darwin’s On the Origin of Species.
Cézanne may have exhibited this watercolour at the Impressionist exhibition in 1877, the second exhibition staged by the group and the last to which he sent works.
Städelsche Kunstinstitut und Städische Galerie, Frankfurt-am-Main
