Ulrike Becks-Malorny - Cézanne 1839-1906 - A modernizmus előfutára

Excerpt from the book:

..."The most attacked and most misunderstood artist of the last fifteen years is Mr. Cézanne. There is no derogatory epithet with which he has not been applied. His works are still surrounded by scandalous success... For my part, I know of no painting that makes me laugh less than this one. "
The art critic Georges Riviere and Renoir's friend defended Cézanne with these words on the occasion of the third exhibition of the Impressionists in May 1877, and then continued:
"Cézanne's works are the inheritors of classical Greek greatness. His canvases exude the calmness and heroic serenity of ancient paintings and terracotta figures... His wonderful still lifes, in which the interrelationship of tones is so precise, carry a kind of solemn truth. This is why this painter expresses so many emotions on canvas, because he himself experiences intense feelings in the proximity of nature, and he lists all his artistic skills to give them back."