1873 -1906 · walls, roofs and volumes in the landscape

Cracked, red, isolated or accompanied by a dovecote, the house becomes a stable measure for Cézanne which allows you to experience trees, slope and depth.

Cézanne's houses are never simple decorations. In Auvers, Pontoise or Provence, they introduce into the landscape a constructed volume that the touch must make as solid as the terrain. The House with cracked walls makes cracks a surface event, but maintains the building as a central mass. In Bellevue, house and dovecote distribute several blocks under the trees. The red roof of Jas de Bouffan transforms a warm color into a point balance among the greens. On the road to the Black Castle, House Maria appears behind the vegetation and rocks, partially hidden but structurally decisive. Cézanne simplifies facades, windows and roofs without reducing them to abstract cubes: each volume is modified by the chosen angle, the light and the relationship with the branches. The "Maisons de Paul Cézanne" selection notably compares La Maison aux Murs Fissurés and Maison de Bellevue and dovecote. Its reading favors composition.

The Cézannian house gives the landscape a human weight without telling the life of its inhabitants.