Cezanne's Garden

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Summary: A Beautiful Book, Essential for Any Lover of Cézanne
Review: For so many years Provence has been a haven for artists. Not only is our scenery beautiful, the light here really is different. The limestone cliffs absorb the sunlight, rather than reflect it, so even on the sunniest days, Provence is infused with a dreaminess that can't be found anywhere else in the world. Master gardener and photographer, Derek Fell, has created a wonderful series of books built around art and gardening, involving, among others, Renoir, Monet, van Gogh and Cézanne. Although all of these four artists spent time in Provence (Renoir lived out his final years in Cagnes-sur-Mer, van Gogh only a little farther west), only Cézanne was a native of Provence, being from the beautiful university town of Aix. In fact, in art school in Paris, his "southern" accent was mocked and made fun of on a regular basis.

In CEZANNE'S GARDEN, Fell takes us to Cézanne's family home above Aix, Jas de Bouffan, and shows us the huge trees that canopy the almost hidden allees of the estate, the walls surrounding the property and the now rusty iron gates. Jas de Bouffan was home to more formal gardens than some artists liked and Fell shows us the architectural elements that made Cézanne choose the formality he did.

Cézanne believed that an artist had a responsibility to chronicle the splendor and beauty inherent in nature, and his own hideaway, Les Lauves, shows us why. It's a gorgeous place where nature is given top priority. Some of the photographs of stone steps, stone walls and heavily wooded paths will make almost any city dweller want to rush to the country, if only for a weekend. Cézanne preferred an unusual garden, with many leaf tunnels, strong structural elements and brilliant shades of green in heavily wooded areas.

Fell ventures away from Cézanne's home in this book as well and takes us to Mt. Sainte-Victoire, a mountain that appears in many of Cézanne's paintings. Mt. Sainte-Victoire, just outside the city of Aix, is well known to residents of Provence and its distinctive look can't be missed.

Although gardeners like me can get a lot of ideas from CEZANNE'S GARDEN, this really isn't a "how to" book about gardening. It's also not a comprehensive guide to the work of Cézanne, though it does contain 12 illustrations of Cézanne's paintings as well as 100 gorgeous photographs. Like VAN GOGH'S GARDEN, CEZANNE'S GARDEN is more of an overview of how the light and landscape of Provence influenced choices in color and form and thus, the painting of Cézanne.

CEZANNE'S GARDEN is a beautiful book and one that any art or garden lover would be proud to have on his or her coffee table. It will also show the traveler, no matter how seasoned, that a visit to Les Lauves has to be included on the itinerary of any trip to Provence. This is a special book that any lover of , or Impressionism, can't afford to pass up.