Chestnut Trees and Farm at Jas de Bouffan

Chestnut Trees and Farm at Jas de Bouffan (c.1886) is one of Cézanne's many studies of the chestnut tree avenue at his family estate, painted during the period when he was systematically exploring how to organize the perception of nature into a stable pictorial structure. The Jas de Bouffan trees — planted in the eighteenth century as a formal avenue — gave Cézanne a subject he could observe across seasons and years, testing his evolving methods against a familiar motif. The farm buildings visible through the trees add architectural geometry to organic form, a combination central to his approach. The painting is held at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum.

The chestnut trees are structured as vertical masses through which the farm buildings are visible, creating a spatial layering that Cézanne articulates through overlapping planes of color. The characteristic constructive brushstroke — short, parallel marks building volume — organizes both foliage and building into a coherent tonal architecture.