Landscape (recto); Sketch of rocks(?) (verso)

Landscape (recto); Sketch of rocks(?) (verso) by Paul Cézanne, executed between 1890 and 1895, offers a prime example of the artist’s highly disciplined yet expressive approach to composition through drawing and color. The recto features a dynamic landscape rendered in watercolor applied over a foundational structure of black chalk. Cézanne’s technique involves utilizing the white paper as an active compositional element, deploying thin, deliberate washes of color to suggest light, atmosphere, and volume without strictly defining contours. This combination of the rigid structural framework provided by the black chalk and the atmospheric fluidity of the watercolor was central to the artist’s late career studies, particularly in his rendering of trees and the surrounding terrain.

The verso of the sheet provides further insight into Cézanne’s prolific working method, featuring a swift sketch, tentatively identified as rocks, executed in black chalk and blue wash. The economical use of line and limited color on the verso demonstrates the Post-Impressionist master’s relentless focus on distilling complex natural geometry into essential forms. These drawings served as independent explorations of line and color, crucial to his analytical style. Cézanne’s practice of creating detailed and nuanced drawings was fundamental to his redefinition of the landscape tradition, bridging traditional representation and modern abstraction. This seminal drawing, which documents the master’s dual mastery of form and hue, is a highlight of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection of works on paper.