Paul Cézanne, born on 19th January 1839 in Aix-en-Provence near the French Mediterranean coast, he attended Bourbon College as a boarder in 1852 and in 1859 Cézanne started to study law. In 1866 Cézanne submits works to the Paris Salon but were rejected, he also failed the entrance exams for the official painting school in Paris (the Ecole des Beaux-Arts). Finally in 1874, Cézanne has the first exhibition of his work. In 1904 Cézanne exhibited his work in both Paris and Berlin. Then in 22nd October 1906 in Chemin de Lauves (Aix-en-Provence) he gets caught in a downpour catching pneumonia and died a week later. (His health had deteriorated so took a carriage instead of walking but was angered by the increasing fares so walked).

Cézanne was termed "the father of modern art." He successfully infiltrated the modern art world and moulded it into what we see today, his work is colourful yet subdued, not detailed but showing form and substance in the flowers - even in the portrayal of the small and wispy (e.g. Vase of Tulips). Great depth is shown through the darkness of the shading, which is enlivened by his use of vivid reds, yellows, greens and blues (and white where the light hits). He doesn't use black, but employs darker tones of his brighter colours and uses a heavy impasto to create the texture his work shows. The deep colours are used to show the dimensions and are well blended to create texture, but not much detail. This is a very formal style of painting.

Cézanne was trying to get across the idea of a closed, complete composition within a limited space, trying to explore a theme or motif rather than a narrative or emotion. He was looking for form rather than an emotional outlook. This is why the underlying structure of Cubism and abstractions appealed to his yet he was obsessed with formal elements plus colour as tone - he liked the colour theories of the Impressionists, but disliked what he saw as a lack of form and structure - he always searched for a balancing of forms - he said he intended to make Impressionism "something solid and durable, like the art of the museums."

His paintings were colourful yet subdued, not detailed but show form and substance in the flowers even in the portrayal of small wispy flowers (such as in Vase of Tulips 1890-1892 oil on paper, mounted on board). Great depth is shown through the darkness of the shading. Quite dark paintings, which are livened by his use of vivid reds, yellows, greens and blues (and white where the light hits). He also doesn't use black but darker tones of his brighter colours - he treats shadows as shapes in their own rights with solid borders, breaking the traditional role of chiaroscuro, which used a continuous scale of tones from dark to light. The bold and deep use of colour, with lots of bright colours and a large variety and use of very deep dark shadows to show the dimensions, well blended to create texture but not much detail give Cézanne's work a very recognisable style. It's also a very formal style or painting - he was concerned with recording minute variations in tone and colour and in using the geometric forms he considered to be the most frequently occurring in nature -the cylinder, the sphere and the cone.

To many artists Cézanne's use of colour and shadow in his paintings is important; it gives them a great depth. They're vibrant yet dark and sultry which helps to suggest/show some of the detail not shown. His style also gives a Romantic "lurid" tone and quality.

He was interested in cubistic and abstract art forms and the use of colour, tone and modern art. In his work it shows also an interest in Romanticism and violence in his painting style (palette knife) - painting for him was the 'realisation'of impressions received from nature - the translation of unpaintable facts of space into colours and shapes. Cézanne digested theories in colour and light, he turned his back on mechanical influences and looked back to the old masters, he believe there to be something missing in art in his day.