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Cezanne Painting Sainte-Victoire short documentary

Paul Cezanne was obsessed with Mount Sainte-Victoire, near Aix-en-Provence. He painted more than ten thousand watercolors of it, and he died of pleurisy in 1906 after staying out in a rainstorm to catch the dark clouds above it on canvas. When Andre Malraux was culture minister, he had the road leading to the mountain renamed the Route Cezanne.

A short French documentary from 2017 is available on Prime and other streamers, and it is as much about the mountain as the artist. After a forest fire in 1989 damaged the area, new regulations preserving the landscape were enacted, and recent archaeological digs have been adding to the dinosaur exhibits at local museums.

The narration of the show catches the particular quality of French art criticism and history that I have mentioned elsewhere as needing a re-calibration when told to Americans.

The show is also a good promo for visitors to Aix.

Side note -- the early French treasure seekers in San Francisco in the 1850s were from the Aix area, and the oldest French Catholic church in the city is named after Mount Sainte-Victoire.

It looks like it is available on youtube here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgL4lajWf9g

Posted by
2730 posts

Thank you!
I will check this out later.
I spent an extra day in Aix after the RS Eastern France tour a few years ago to see some Cezanne sites, including the quarry and his workshop. Interested in anything Cezanne.

Posted by
14930 posts

Thanks, Avi. I never really "got" Cezanne until I was in Aix for a Road Scholar tour. When I saw Mont Sainte-Victoire and the quarry areas his style clicked for me.