iGrand PalaisChamps-Élysées
Cézanne and Us
Nearly 180 works tracing Cézanne's profound influence, from Gauguin, Matisse and Picasso to Mondrian, Joan Mitchell and Peter Doig, and the artists who claimed his legacy.
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In the 1880s the way to see a Cézanne was to go to père Tanguy's paint shop, because Cézanne, tired of failure, had stopped exhibiting. The Grand Palais starts there and follows the word of mouth: Vollard's shows from 1895, the posthumous display at the 1907 Salon d'Automne, then the avant-garde exhibitions of the 1910s.
There are 174 works in Galleries 3 and 4: 69 by Cézanne and 105 by 78 other artists, from Gauguin, Matisse and Picasso to Joan Mitchell and Peter Doig. One review says the show doesn't ask you to take the influence on trust, it puts it under your nose, and picks out still lifes that seem to slide off their tables. So does your Franprix bag on Line 1 as it brakes into Concorde.
Connaissance des Arts gave it 19/20. Tickets are 19 euros (free under 18), and a reviewer advises booking a timed slot. Open until 19:30, Fridays until 22:00, closed Mondays. The Grand Palais estimates 1h30.
Editor's pick
Cézanne's Bather from MoMA, hands on hips, faces Peter Doig's much larger take on the subject. 69 Cézannes hang among 105 works by painters he shaped. Connaissance des Arts gave it 19/20; Bilan found many pairings clash.
Look for
Pommes et biscuits (1880)
In the still-life room, built around Cézanne's instruction to treat nature by the cylinder and the sphere; look at how the tabletops tilt.
Le Joueur de cartes (1890-92)
In the portrait room, where form and colour matter more than a likeness of the sitter.
Les Grandes Baigneuses (c. 1894-1905)
The monumental bathers, the culmination of the theme and the room that shows what later painters took from it.
Le Jardin des Lauves (c. 1906)
A late landscape that illustrates his idea of art as a harmony parallel to nature.
The Sainte-Victoire room
The mountain he painted more than 80 times, shown as an obsessive study of a single view.
Good for
- Evening Visits
- First-Timers
- Nerding Out
- Out-Of-Town Guests
About 90 min
Skip if
You want visual harmony: reviewers say clashing formats and palettes make several rooms hard to read.
With kids
Under-18s are free. Guided family visits (ages 7-16, 1 hour) and workshop-visits (ages 6-10 and 7-16, 2 hours) run in French only.
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Image credits
9
- Cézanne and UsCourtesy of Grand Palais
- Monet, Painting TimeNational Gallery of Art / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
- Contemporary Counterpoint: Vija CelminsVija Celmins, Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery
- Mungo Thomson: Monument© Mungo Thomson. Courtesy l'artiste, galerie frank elbaz, and Karma.
- Grand PalaisȘtefan Jurcă / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
- Petit Palais - Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de ParisThesupermat / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
- Fondation CustodiaMOSSOT / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Musée de l'OrangerieHomonihilis / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Hôtel de la MarineParis 16 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0