The Difference Between the Images
To begin with, the two paintings of Mont Sainte-Victoire, painted by Paul Cézanne in 1887 and 1902, are from various eras. Second, because Cezanne worked on the series over many years, the hues he employed evolved as he did. Little splashes of red in both the forefront and backdrop provide a feeling of artistic unity. The green and yellow areas draw the viewer’s attention to the soaring Sainte-Victoire, which is colored in cool blues and pinks (Challis, 2021). Cezanne achieved a sense of space and vastness through his use of clashing colors. However, he painted what appeared to be a dry landscape in the second work by employing muted greens and ochres.
What Cezanne Was Attempting to Accomplish
Cezanne may have intended to show in these two versions that by painting the same theme repeatedly, one may examine the effects of light and color in a variety of settings. He also hoped to demonstrate the medium’s facilitation of in-depth artistic investigation of a single topic (Faure, 2022). I also think Cezanne was trying to teach his fellow artists that they should not limit themselves to one specific technique.
Instead, they should be flexible and willing to experiment. This implies that he believed painters might better capture a subject by using a variety of mediums. In the end, he hoped to show that artistic representations of the natural world are often inaccurate. Instead, his goal was to demonstrate that artistic expression may provide viewers with fresh perspectives on familiar phenomena. In other words, art may serve as nature’s silent messenger.
How the Paintings Are the Same and Different
The two works are painted from an elevated vantage position, offering the spectators a bird’s eye view. That is, much like a bird in flight, the Mount Sainte-Victoire can be seen from a vantage point high above. Several art historians believe that Cezanne learned this style from the widely popular Japanese Ukiyo-e prints of the time. One thing the two paintings do not have in common, though, is the application of geometry.
The second picture shows the organic terrain using geometric elements (Balay, 2019). This is especially noticeable when the terrain is shown using geometric forms such as triangles and squares. By highlighting geometry, one can see how cubism was made possible. In contrast, the first picture makes use of organic forms rather than adopting a geometric landscape. Shapes in this context tend to be curvilinear, like those found in nature (plants and rocks, to mention a few). In general, he relied on organic forms to get a natural, soothing, and gentle effect.
Contribution of the Shifting European Culture
I believe that Claude’s worldview and the associations he may have had with shapes, objects, and hue were influenced by the changing European way of life. For instance, as previously indicated, the paintings and sculptures depicted varying mountain landscapes due to incorporating geometrical and organic patterns popularized at different times (Balay, 2019).
In addition, I speculate that the accelerating cultural shifts served as the unseen backdrop within which he painted the two pieces. In the second painting, for instance, the artist uses realistic techniques, such as contrasting colors, to show the contrast between the cold mountain and the warm foreground. The shifting European culture was crucial in establishing a sense of setting.
References
Balay, J. (2019). Seeing with a mountain: Merleau-Ponty and the landscape aesthetics of Mont Sainte-Victoire. Environment, Space, Place, 11(1), 38-56. Web.
Challis, D. (2021). Foreign currency volatility and the market for French modernist art (Vol. 12). Brill.
Faure, É. (2022). Paul Cézanne. Parkstone International.