Metaphorical Relevance and Thematic Continuity in the Early Paintings of Paul Cezanne, 1865-1877

This study focuses on a selection of early figure paintings by Paul Cezanne, works painted between 1865 and 1877. Its purpose is to ascertain the relationships between these diverse paintings, and demonstrate that there is an underlying rationale that unites them. This rationale is the metaphorical expression of Cezanne's search for a personal and unique place in the art world of the 1860's and 1870's. The metaphorical character of these works implicitly reveals the varied forces which shaped his style and helped determine his subject choices as he moved toward maturity as a painter. His major problem was that of reconciling his intense interest in Romantic art with his Realist commitments and their demands at the time. His drive to synthesize these styles and concomitant ideas emerged as a key feature of his art by the mid-1870's. The meanings of the works that make up this study point to his conscious and deliberate effort to express the problem of reconciliation and synthesis through metaphorical allusions and direct references to his life and career, and to the cultural context of his time. Beginning with the 1865 portraits of his father and Achille Emperaire, the development of self-conscious and metaphorical allusion by Cezanne in the subjects of his art mirrored his stylistic developments. He emerged in the early 1870's with a strong commitment to color, having combined his Realist interests with references to an earlier Romantic idiom as well as a modern Impressionist style. Concluding with a series of literature-related paintings in the mid-1870's, Cezanne expressed the nature of his stylistic synthesis through his choice of subject matter. The examination of Cezanne's early paintings from the viewpoint of meaning as well as style helps resolve some of the contradictions and difficulties of the artist's early period. This context provides a deeper understanding of the nature of Cezanne's iconography, his serial approach to painting, and the integration of subject and style in his paintings.