The Church of Saint-Aspais Seen from the Place de la Préfecture at Melun (L'Église Saint-Aspais vue de la place de la Préfecture à Melun)

Discussion

FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG

From April 1879 to March 1880, Cézanne lived on the third floor of a house at 2, place de la Préfecture in Melun, a town not far from the northern edge of the forest of Fontainebleau. The artist painted this scene from a window in his lodging, and the composition is unique for the artist, as the foregrounds in his village scenes are typically bare. Here, the four aligned rows of pollarded trees fill the square, and the cropped treetops create a striking horizontal line that divides the composition into two halves. Squiggles and patches of parallel brushstrokes are consistent with many works Cézanne executed at around the same time.

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