Artist's portrait with hat

Painted c.1879 and now at the Kunstmuseum Bern, this self-portrait with hat belongs to Cézanne's transitional period when his mature method was crystallising. Several self-portraits from around 1879 show him refining his approach to the head — treating the face and skull as a complex three-dimensional object to be analysed through colour planes rather than conventional tonal modelling. The hat provides a strong horizontal and a dark tone against which the face can be studied in contrast. The Bern museum provides an important European context for this work; Switzerland has historically been a strong collecting ground for Post-Impressionist painting.

The hat creates a strong dark band across the upper canvas, its brim a decisive horizontal. Below it, the face is built with modulated patches of ochre, rose, and cool grey that describe the skull's volume through colour temperature rather than shadow. The background is handled loosely, maintaining focus on the face. Contours are restated rather than settled — a characteristic of Cézanne's approach to form.