This is one of 29 portraits Paul Cézanne painted of Hortense Fiquet, his most frequent model, the mother of his only son, and later his wife.
Visitors in Humble and Human: An Exhibition in Honor of Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. with Paul Cézanne’s Madame Cézanne, 1886–87. Photo by Mark Why.
Although the relationship between the two was frequently contentious, Cézanne embraced Hortense’s familiarity as a means to explore the mechanics of painting. In Madame Cézanne, he unified Hortense with her background by using similar brushstrokes and the same limited range of colors for both elements.
Madame Cézanne is on view as part of Humble and Human: An Exhibition in Honor of Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. through Sunday, May 26, 2019.
