Art and Philosophy

Introduction

The yearning for realism was split into superficial realism and profound realism. People have tried to make Cezanne into a sort of genius manqué: they say that he knew admirable things. Cezanne is one of the greatest of those who orient history. The understanding of Cezanne is close to Cubism. Already under the influence of Cézanne (known as the father of modern art) in 1904, Metzinger had arguably anticipated works such as Bäume (Arbres) (Trees), by Georges Braque, 1908, and related works considered a proto-Cubist (such as Houses at L'Estaque and Le Viaduc à l'Estaque) (Taylor 1992, 50).

Discussion

There exists the possibility that it was signed and dated on the verso at a later date. If indeed this painting was realized in 1904 it would be quite significant, for the influence of Paul Cézanne is quite visible, as well as that of van Gogh (though less than his 1902-1903 works not reproduced here). Recall that avant-garde artists in Paris began revaluating their work in relation to that of Cézanne primarily from 1907 onwards, following exhibits of his works at the 1906 Salon d'Automne, and especially after two commemorative retrospectives that followed his death in 1907. There was, however, a retrospective of Cézanne's paintings that had been held at the Salon d'Automne of 1904; the year this painting by Metzinger was executed (Wood 1999, 75). Metzinger too exhibit in the 1904 Salon d'Automne, as he had in the spring of that year at the Salon des Indépendants. Metzinger's early interest in the work of Cézanne (prior to 1907, and indeed prior to 1905), suggests a means by which Metzinger made the transformation from the Neo-Impressionism of Henri Edmond Cross and Georges Seurat (from whom his 1903 painting owe a debt) to a highly personalized form of Divisionism, evident in this work and others that lead up to 1907, before the advent of Cubism. In recognizing the significance of Cézanne early on, Metzinger was already a precursor, favoring the abstract qualities of larger brushstrokes, vivid colors and the peculiarities (at the time) of non-Euclidean geometry; something increasingly visible in his painting of the following year (Mittelmann 2011, 1).

Much as the Ackland Landscape, Le Chemin à travers les champs pays tribute to the work of Cézanne: broad omnidirectional brushwork, flattening of perspective, geometrically simplified, sphericity, overlapping planes, and an overall abstraction of subject matter. In contrast with Landscape (1904), the influence of Cézanne is not so much in the brushstrokes as in the perspective. Though the table bares the signature of standard 2-point perspective, the fruit bowl and glass appear as if they are pictorially dislocated from the surface upon which they are placed (as if they may fall off at any moment). This gem of a painting, although modest in dimension and classic in subject matter, is rather unique in its combination of Cézannesque geometry with a purely Divisionist brushstroke along with a quasi-Fauve combination of warm colors and cool reflections (Mittelmann 2011, 1).

The Futurists and get away from all metaphysics - ...