The Bent Tree

Cézanne's 'Bent Tree' (1889) belongs to his series of motifs from the Provençal landscape — trees with particular formal characteristics that engaged his systematic investigation of how natural forms could be rendered through his constructive method of parallel brushstrokes. A bent tree — its trunk curved by years of wind or growth — offered a curvilinear form that contrasted with the angular geometry of his geological landscapes, testing how his method handled organic deviation from the vertical. Cézanne's tree studies are among his most concentrated investigations of a single natural form.

Cézanne renders the bent tree's curving trunk through brushstrokes that follow the form's contour while building the color modulations that convey its three-dimensional mass. The tree's deviation from vertical creates a dynamic diagonal within the composition, countered by the horizontal sweep of the landscape behind it. His characteristic 'passage' — the modulation from one color to another across a surface — is particularly evident in how he renders the tree's varied bark.