La Maison du père Lacroix, Auvers-sur-Oise (House of Père Lacroix)

La Maison du père Lacroix, painted in 1873 and now at the National Gallery of Art, is one of the finest surviving documents of the Auvers-sur-Oise period that was decisive for Cézanne's development. He had moved to Auvers at Pissarro's invitation and was working daily under the older painter's supervision, learning to lighten his palette, work outdoors from direct observation, and develop a more systematic approach to recording the visual world. The house of Père Lacroix — a simple vernacular building in the village — provided exactly the kind of geometric subject that Cézanne could analyze through repeated study: its walls creating flat planes of ochre and grey, its roofline defining clear geometric angles, the surrounding garden offering organic material as counterpoint. Dr. Paul Gachet was a neighbor in Auvers and a significant presence in the artistic community there; his friendship with Pissarro and his sympathy for avant-garde painting created the environment in which Cézanne could work productively. Gachet would famously treat Van Gogh in his final months seventeen years later, and the Auvers milieu that Cézanne had helped shape in the 1870s would become indelibly associated with Van Gogh's last paintings.

Cézanne builds the house's walls, roof, and surrounding vegetation through directional brushstrokes that begin to suggest his later constructive approach. The architectural volumes are established through carefully observed variations in the play of light across different surfaces, and the surrounding trees and garden create a complementary organic context for the geometric building.