Provencal Manor

Paul Cézanne's Provençal Manor (1885) depicts one of the traditional mas — farmhouses — of Provence, rendered with the systematic attention he brought to all his architectural subjects. The Provençal manor carries the specific qualities of southern French domestic architecture: thick walls of local stone, shuttered windows against summer heat, the traditional terracotta roof tiles, the surrounding landscape of olive, almond, and pine. For Cézanne these architectural forms were as interesting as any human face — geometric volumes in natural light.

Cézanne renders the manor through his characteristic analysis: the wall planes described through directional strokes that build the sense of solid geometric volume, the roof's terracotta tiles handled in warm orange-ochre that contrasts with the cooler grey of stone walls, the windows providing rectangular accents of darker tone. His palette combines the warm local stone colors with the blue-grey of Provençal sky. The landscape setting — trees, path, surrounding terrain — is treated with equal systematic attention.