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POSTIMPRESSIONISM
PAUL CEZANNE:
Excerpts from the Letters
THE CYLINDER, THE SPHERE, THE CONE
To Emile Bernard, Aix, I5 April 1904 (# 167, p. 234)
May I repeat what I told you here: treat nature by the cylinder, the sphere, the cone, everything in proper perspective so that each side of an object or a plane is directed towards a central point. Lines parallel to the horizon give breadth, that is a section of nature or, if you prefer, I of the spectacle that the Pater Omnipotens Aeterne Deus spreads out before our eyes. Lines perpendicular to this horizon give depth. But nature for us men is more depth than surface, whence the need of introducing into our light vibrations, represented by reds and yellows, a sufficient amount of blue to give the impression of air.
I must tell you that I had another look at the study you made in the lower
floor of the studio, it is good. You should, I think, only continue in this way. You have the understanding of what must be done and you will soon turn your back on the Gauguins and the Van Goghs!
THE STUDY QF NATURE
To Emile Bernard, Aix, I2 May 1904 (#168, p. 235-236)
My absorption in my work and my advanced age will explain sufficiently my delay in answering your letter.
Moreover, in your last letter you discourse on such widely divergent topics, though all are connected with art, that I cannot follow you in all your phases ....
I am progressing very slowly, for nature reveals herself to me in very complex forms; and the progress needed is incessant. One must see one's model correctly and experience it in the right way; and furthermore express oneself forcibly and with distinction.
Taste is the best judge. It is rare. Art only addresses itself to an excessively small number of individuals.
The artist must scorn all judgment that is not based on an intelligent observation of character. He must beware of the literary spirit which so often causes painting to deviate from its true path-the concrete study of nature-to lose itself all too long in intangible speculations.
The Louvre is a good book to consult but it must only be an intermediary. The real and immense study that must be taken up is the manifold picture of nature.
To Emile Bernard, Aix, 26 May 1904 (#169, pp. 236-237)
On the whole I approve of the ideas you are going to expound in your next article for the Occident. But I must always come back to this: the painter must devote himself entirely to the study of nature and try to produce pictures which are an instruction. Talks on art are almost useless. The work which goes to bring progress in one's own subject is sufficient compensation for the incomprehension of imbeciles.
Literature expresses itself by abstractions, whereas painting by means of drawing and color gives concrete shape to sensations and perceptions. (One is neither too scrupulous nor too sincere nor too submissive to nature; but one is more or less master of one's model, and above all, of the means of expression. Get to the heart of what is before you and continue to express yourself as logically as possible.
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