Madame Cézanne (Hortense Fiquet, 1850–1922) en el invernadero

Cézanne painted his wife, Hortense Fiquet, at least 29 times, more than anyone else in his life, and rarely made her look at ease. They met in Paris around 1869, when she modelled for artists, and for years he hid her and their son from his father, on whose money he depended. Only after they married in 1886, and his father died that same year and left him the family estate near Aix, could he paint her openly there. This portrait, from about 1891, sets her in the estate's glass conservatory, worked up in cool greens. Her hands, though, lie in her lap barely begun, a few loose strokes over bare canvas, while the plant behind her is carried to a finish. He built a picture slowly, section by section, and simply set this one down before the hands were done.