Гора Сент-Виктуар

Cezanne grew up in sight of this mountain, the Montagne Sainte-Victoire that rises east of Aix-en-Provence, and he painted it more than 60 times in oils and watercolors. This version dates from the early 1890s and was left unfinished, which is part of why it rewards a slow look. The color is brushed on in thin diluted washes over pale canvas, the bare ground still showing through, so the oil behaves almost like watercolor and the whole scene seems to shimmer. You can follow his method in the open patches, each stroke set down at a deliberate slant to build the slope and the valley of the river Arc below. He kept returning to this same view until the end of his life.