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Essay / Analysis of different points of view on the bay of Marseille, seen from l'Estaque by Paul Cézanne
The painting The Bay of Marseille, seen from l'Estaque (1885), by Paul Cézanne is exhibited at Art Institute of Chicago Illinois. This two-dimensional oil on canvas is measured at 80.2 x 100.6 cm. It is part of a series of paintings representing a bay in Marseille, a small village in the south of France. Using a high point of view, Cézanne positions the image so that the viewer is looking down on the rooftops of the village. In the foreground, behind the buildings, is a large expanse of water with hills in the distance. Cézanne retreated to the Bay of Marseille several times throughout his life, inspiring him to create this series of paintings. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The image is divided into four areas; the architecture in the foreground, with the red and brown roofs. The deep blue body of water that takes up the majority of the central space, giving a flatness to the image, the distant mountains and the sky above. Mountains softened by their wavy appearance and the use of light. Cézanne describes how the configuration of the landscape and the colors fascinated him, saying: “It's like playing cards with its simple shapes and colors. Red roofs on the blue sea... the sun is so terrible here that it seems to me that the objects are silhouetted not only in black and white but also in blue, red, brown and purple. “Roger Fry was an English painter and critic who studied the work of Cézanne and who rejected dominant modes of criticism. He believed that a painting was just a painting and that the key to Cézanne's work was the form and not the subject; Fry's form should be the main expressive element of all art. Cézanne's works approximated this formal expression, with his use of tone and line to create a sense of structure in all his compositions. Cézanne played with the idea that form could be achieved through color. Paint with thick layers and observe that there are no contour lines when looking at nature. Cézanne creates the outline with a bluish gray tone of paint, depositing it in such a way that the paint interacts with the space around it, giving it amplitude. His expressive brushstrokes also create a vibrant effect within his contour line, which appears slightly separated from the edge of his shapes. With this effect, the objects give off a feeling of weight, thus giving the room an impressive solidarity. Fry also highlights how the use of simplicity in structure and objects creates an understandable image while still being able to communicate a vivid sense of life. Maurice Merleau-Ponty, being a philosopher, takes a different approach to the application of Cézanne. In his article Cézanne Doute, Merleau-Ponty explains how our sensations tend to appear spontaneous and chaotic and how our brains are programmed to organize them into a whole. He believes that Cézanne captures the very process of “being” before it becomes tainted by the prejudices and preconceptions of our minds. Merleau-Ponty saw Cézanne as a way for him to make sense of the world; Cézanne's work for him reflects the phenomenon of experience, the way in which confused and vibrant appearances are transferred. Cézanne's work used color and shape to convey a more "lived" nature of human experience. Merleau-Ponty also notes how Cézanne's use of local tones creates contrast between objects and how these colors bring out a more natural way of how we perceive nature. The appearance of complementary tones.