Self-Portrait with a Beret

Cézanne began a systematic campaign of self portraiture in the 1870s and continued it through the next thirty years. In this picture, made near the end of his life, the artist painted himself with a detachment that bordered on abstraction in the clean, geometric volumes of the hat, the barely indicated chair, the stark planes of cheekbone and forehead. This resulting work is among the simplest of Cézanne’s self portraits and recalls his stated desire to “make of Impressionism an art as solid as that of the museums.”

painting by Paul Cézanne (Museum: Museum of Fine Arts)

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