Railroad Cut (La Tranchée)
1867–1868
Oil on primed paper (later mounted to canvas)
19.1 × 31.8 cm (7.5 × 12.5 in)
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● On view now — Collection Gallery, Main Room, North Wall
Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia · verified July 2026
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FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG
Railroad Cut is an oil study for the finished painting Railroad Cut with Mont Sainte-Victoire (1870, now in Munich). It represents land near Aix-en-Provence sectioned to accommodate railway tracks linking Aix with Rognac; between the banks of earth, a bright red railroad signal is juxtaposed with the medieval tower of the Cathedral of Saint-Sauveur. Railroad Cut is the first painting in which Cézanne addressed the effects of industrial modernism on the Provençal landscape.
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