Paul Cezanne - Auvers, Panoramic View Tablecloth

Auvers, Panoramic View (Vue panoramique d'Auvers-sur-Oise), painted in Auvers-sur-Oise between 1873 and 1875 in oil on canvas by French Post-Impressionist Paul Cézanne. The broad view spreads the village, fields and distant slopes across a high horizon, giving the landscape an unusually expansive scale for this early period. Cézanne began the work during his first long stay in Auvers, where Camille Pissarro acted as an important mentor and encouraged his growing engagement with outdoor painting. Houses and vegetation are organised into strong bands and geometric patches of colour while individual architectural details remain secondary to the overall structure. The painting records an important moment when Cézanne’s darker early manner was giving way to a lighter palette. Several identifiable landmarks are embedded in the panorama, including the house of Dr Paul Gachet, the painting’s first owner, the House of the Hanged Man and the chimney of an old starch factory. Cézanne deliberately framed out more picturesque motifs such as the church of Auvers, concentrating instead on the ordinary roofs, walls and cultivated landscape.