There are those who paint for money, there are those who paint for joy. Paul Cézanne undoubtedly belonged to the second category. Why else would a young man with a moneyed background choose to shun it all for the sake of his passion? Paul Cézanne's father was a banker and wanted his son too to follow in his footsteps. Complying with his wishes, Paul Cézanne learnt the ropes in banking, but after six years of that, he chose to give it all up for his first love- painting. Though his father did not support his decision, his mother did

Paul Cézanne marked the transition from the impressionist stage to a post impressionist one- with a cubist style to it. He was one of the pioneers in the above mentioned change. There were many who looked to him for inspiration and he never failed those who looked up to him.

Though his peers seemed to understand and recognize his mastery, there were dealers and buyers who did not. Luckily for Paul Cézanne, money was never an issue as he inherited a sizable amount from his father.

His style of painting was very individualistic. It went back to the basics- where each object could be broken down to the simplest of structures. This was a novel facet and once he took the plunge in this direction, there were many who followed.

Paul Cézanne, like many of his contemporaries, was fascinated with nudes. Many of his creations centered on the subject. A very peculiar thing that he did was that he constantly kept working on his past creation, making new versions of the same thing. Reinvention was his thing and it took up a lot of his time.

His last recorded work- Nudes in landscape was created between 1900 and 1905. As the title suggests, it shows nudes involved in various activities. The painting is very minimalist in nature and shows the influence of the cubist style very nicely. Also, the colors that he has used are very strong and confident- they bend in with the colors of nature showing an innate connection between nature and man in his purest form.

A wonderful artist, Paul Cézanne continued to work till the end of his days.