Retrato de Gustave Geffroy

The critic Gustave Geffroy had written warmly about Cezanne when few people would, and in gratitude the painter offered to make his portrait. Through the spring of 1895 Geffroy sat for him nearly every day for three months, surrounded by his own books, a rose in a glass, a small plaster figure by Rodin on the shelf behind. Then Cezanne gave up. He had saved the face and the hands for last and never finished them, and one day he packed up and went home to Aix, telling Geffroy he was hopeless at it. What he left behind is oddly gripping. The tower of books tilts and bends, the desk seems to rise toward you, and the sitter's pale, unfinished face keeps its distance. Braque and Picasso studied that leaning bookcase closely a decade later.