塞尚夫人肖像

In 1886, Cézanne finally married Hortense Fiquet after living with her, on and off, for 17 years, and shortly afterwards his father died and left him wealthy enough to paint exactly as he pleased. What he pleased to paint was Hortense, again and again, close to 30 times. This is one of the later sittings, from around 1890, when he was mostly living apart from the Paris art world down in Aix. She sits in a plain armchair, hands folded, her face giving nothing away, because he treated her much as he treated his apples, as a shape to be solved. Look at the bright touches on her cheek and collar. Some of them are not paint at all, just the bare canvas he left showing through.