Paul Cézanne in his studio Les Lauves, 1904. Photo by Émile Bernard
The love (in Cezanne's art) is so thoroughly used
up in the action of making that there is no residue.
It may be that this using up of love in anonymous
work, which produces such pure things, was
never achieved as completely as in the work of this
old man; his inner nature, having grown
mistrustful and sullen, helped him to do it. He
would certainly not have shown this love to
another human being, had he been forced
to conceive such a love; but with this disposition,
which, thanks to his reclusive eccentricity, was
fully ripened now, he turned to nature and knew
how to swallow back his love for every apple
and put it to rest in the painted apple forever.
Can you imagine what that is like, and what
it's like to experience this through him?
~ Rilke on Cezanne
art by Paul Cezanne
