Montagne Sainte-Victoire (Paysage)

This 1889 view of the Montagne Sainte-Victoire, now at the Barnes Foundation, was painted the same year Cézanne was producing the first of his sustained series of canvases devoted to that Provençal landmark near Aix-en-Provence. Renoir and Cézanne had visited L'Estaque together in 1882, influencing each other, and Renoir's interest in the Provençal landscape anticipates his permanent move south in the 1900s. The Sainte-Victoire motif—so associated with Cézanne—in Renoir's hands becomes a warmer, more atmospheric study in morning or afternoon light rather than the structural analysis Cézanne was pursuing.

Renoir treats the mountain with loose, warm brushwork rather than Cézanne's planar construction, conveying the heat-haze and luminosity of the Provençal landscape through chromatic warmth. Blues and purples in the mountain shadow contrast with golden ochres in the foreground scrubland.