Trees and Houses, Provence

This 1885 canvas of trees and houses in Provence, held in Oslo, belongs to the period when Cézanne was working intensively through the landscape near Gardanne and Aix with fully developed mature methods. The recurring subject of houses partially obscured by trees allowed him to explore the interaction of geometric and organic forms — the clear planar surfaces of architecture softened and complicated by the irregular masses of vegetation. His Provençal landscapes of this period translate the specific qualities of southern French light and geology into a pictorial language of colored planes that would inspire the Cubist generation.

The canvas demonstrates Cézanne's characteristic organization of the Provençal landscape into overlapping color planes. Warm ochres of stone walls interact with the varied greens of trees in a shallow, tightly organized pictorial space. His diagonal brushstrokes give visual texture to both surfaces.