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John Walser's Thoughts On Cézanne

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John Walser's Thoughts On Cézanne
In his essay about Cézanne, Walser was precise as always and he leads us to an understanding of the content of the work by the painter and the painter’s intention. In order to know what exactly Walser meant when he wrote in his essay, “Thoughts on Cézanne,” “The man I’m now speaking of gazed, for instance, at these fruits, which are as ordinary as they are remarkable, for a long time, he pondered their look, the skin stretched taut around them, the strange repose of their being, their laughing, glowing, good-humoured appearance.” (137) the reader needs to know about Cézanne’s painting apples and oranges which were pretty ordinary but inspiring based on a little bit of research I did on my own. The painting Walser chose as a subject of his essay …show more content…
Based on Walser’s description of Cézanne, he points out that any painting Cézanne did, treated by him in the same manner. Cézanne was seeing things in one way and it was correct to his vision. I struck by this description because later on, Walser says when Cézanne was painting his wife, he described Madame Cézanne as a mute unopened flower. The details of Walser language when describing a picture not only help readers to envision the picture but also give an opportunity to readers to see the world through the artist’s eyes. For Cézanne, love of his life, “to whom he could entrust” was as wondrous as his painted fruits. Walser also uses the words “tolerance of angel” or “a miracle of docility” (138) to show that no discontentment is implied on Cézanne's wife's part. Walser also mentions about the artist as a “studio person” (140) which I love the most because for an artist even though she was his wife when it comes to drawing she wasn’t more significant than any other objects such as flowers, glasses, or dishes. Throughout his essay, Walser writes about the quality of the artist’s work and his life, and he does so much with his detailed

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