Paul Cezanne - Self-portrait Cutting Board

Self-Portrait (Portrait de l'artiste), painted around 1875 in oil on canvas by French Post-Impressionist Paul Cézanne. Cézanne presents himself directly, using dense brushwork and strong tonal contrasts to build the head and shoulders with a physical, almost sculptural weight. The portrait avoids the smooth finish expected in conventional academic likenesses and instead makes the painted surface visibly active. During the 1870s Cézanne repeatedly examined his own features, using self-portraiture as a private testing ground for changes in handling and colour. This version belongs to the period when his earlier dark palette was beginning to open towards the lighter effects associated with his contact with the Impressionists. Cézanne painted twenty-six known self-portraits during his career. This work dates from the years of his close artistic exchange with Camille Pissarro, whose influence was central to the lightening of Cézanne’s palette during the 1870s.