LOOKING AT PAUL CÉZANNE

Morandi spent his summers in his studio in Grizzana, tucked away in the Emilian hillside. His idyllic surroundings influenced works such as his Landscape of 1927, which evokes the rich tradition of landscape painting that came before him.

In Landscape Morandi reimagines his studio through the eyes of artists such as Paul Cézanne (b. 1839, Aix-en-Provence; d. 1906, Aix-en-Provence). In its contrasting tones of greens, greys, and browns, it resembles Cézanne’s The House with the Cracked Walls, which was reproduced in a book on Cézanne published in the same year that Morandi created this scene. Even in black and white, it is easy to appreciate the quick tonal shifts across the surface of the Cézanne.

Reproductions in black and white also informed Morandi’s etching practice, which provided him with another medium through which to explore the subjects of his paintings. In his 1927 Landscape, Morandi uses this technique to see his Grizzana studio in a new light.