Bend Of The Road At The Top Of The Chemin Des Lauves

Bend of the Road at the Top of the Chemin des Lauves, painted around 1904 and held at the Beyeler Foundation in Basel, records the specific road that led from Aix up to the studio Cézanne had built on the Lauves hill in 1902. The road to a studio is an unavoidable subject for an artist — walked repeatedly, seen in all conditions — and Cézanne's transformation of this quotidian path into a major painting subject demonstrates his ability to find the universal in the immediately available. The Beyeler Foundation's holding of several late Cézannes makes it one of the best sites for experiencing his final decade's work.

The winding road provides a strong compositional device that draws the eye into and through the landscape, flanked by the characteristic stone walls and umbrella pines of the Aix countryside. Cézanne's colour patches render the road surface, walls, and trees as variations on the same constructive procedure.