Paul Cézanne rebuilt the ordinary world through color, structure, and patient looking. Still lifes, bathers, portraits, and landscapes become less like simple views and more like carefully constructed visual experiences.

He began close to Impressionism and took part in its early exhibitions, but later followed a more independent path. Instead of dissolving form into light, Cézanne used color to give weight, volume, and tension to everything he painted.

His work opened the door to many of the visual experiments of the 20th century. By shifting perspective and treating objects as carefully constructed forms, Cézanne helped make painting feel less like a window onto the world and more like a world of its own.