Mont Sainte-Victoire seen from Bellevue

Painted c.1892 and now at the Barnes Foundation, this view of Mont Sainte-Victoire from the estate at Bellevue represents an intermediate phase in Cézanne's decades-long campaign to paint the mountain. From the Bellevue property — which belonged to his brother-in-law — the mountain is seen across a wide valley with an aqueduct in the middle distance, a composition he used for several related canvases in the late 1880s and early 1890s. These mid-distance views differ from the more abstract Les Lauves views that dominate his final years: the mountain is still recognisably present as a specific geological mass, set in a landscape that retains naturalistic elements.

The mountain occupies the upper right of the composition, its pale blue planes contrasting with the warm ochre of the valley plain below. An aqueduct punctuates the middle distance, its arches rendered as a regular rhythm of pale stone. Foreground vegetation is built with overlapping strokes of green, yellow, and blue. The composition demonstrates Cézanne's characteristic compression of foreground and middle distance into adjacent planes.