The Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley

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The Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley: Paul Cezanne

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Art Type: Oil Painting
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Paul Cezanne Oil Painting - The Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley

Keywords: Mont, Sainte, Victoire, Viaduct, Arc, River, Valley

Work Overview: The Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley
Artist Paul Cézanne
Year 1882—1885
Medium oil-on-canvas
Dimensions 25 3/4 x 32 1/8 in. (65.4 x 81.6 cm)
Location Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley is an 1882—85 painting by the French artist Paul Cézanne. It is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley was painted from 1882 to 1885, and was completed 21 years before Cézanne's artistic career finished.[1] Cézanne began working on impressionism in his artworks in the late 19th century, nearing the end of his career, away from his post-impressionist former paintings. A later example of this can be seen in The Card Players.[2] These mainly included still lifes and landscapes such as Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley. His aim was "to make of Impressionism something solid and durable, like the art of museums."[3] It was painted in the 'mature' period of Cézanne's work.[4]

The Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley was a bequest to the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Henry Osborne Havemeyer and his wife Louisine Waldron Elder Havemeyer. After Henry died in 1907, the work passed to Louisine; it was donated to the museum following her death in 1929 as part of the Havemeyer collection of 142 artworks.[5]

The painting depicts the Montagne Sainte-Victoire, which dominates the landscape of his native city of Aix-en-Provence (southern France). The city is visible in the distance, far back from the valley of the Arc River.[6][7] Moreover, this painting depicts the railway bridge on the Aix-Marseille line at the Arc River Valley and the train which runs on it.[8]

It is 65.5 cm × 81.7 cm (25.8 in × 32.2 in) in size, one of Cézanne's smallest works in his artistic career.[9] Cézanne depicted the same mountain several other times, including in Mont Sainte-Victoire seen from Bellevue, in Mont Sainte-Victoire with Large Pine, in Plain by Mont Sainte-Victoire, and in paintings titled simply Mont Sainte-Victoire in the holdings of the Courtauld Institute of Art in London and the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh. Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley was painted near the end of his working career.

The distinctive silhouette of Mont Saint-Victoire rises above the Arc River valley near the town of Aix. To paint this scene, Cézanne stood close to Montbriand, his sister’s property, at the top of the hill just behind her house; the wall of the neighboring farmhouse is barely visible. Cézanne sought to reveal the inner geometry of nature, "to make of Impressionism something solid and durable, like the art of museums." Indeed the railroad viaduct that cuts throught this pastoral scene is evocative of a Roman aqueduct, recalling paintings by Nicolas Poussin.

The distinctive silhouette of Mont Saint-Victoire rises above the Arc River valley near the town of Aix. To paint this scene, Cézanne stood close to Montbriand, his sister’s property, at the top of the hill just behind her house; the wall of the neighboring farmhouse is barely visible. Cézanne sought to reveal the inner geometry of nature, "to make of Impressionism something solid and durable, like the art of museums." Indeed the railroad viaduct that cuts throught this pastoral scene is evocative of a Roman aqueduct, recalling paintings by Nicolas Poussin.

Cézanne's main work was done in landscapes. He painted the river valleys of the Ile-de-France and, above all, his beloved hard, bright, sunbaked Provence. Over the course of decades he never tired of walking the hills in order to paint the majestic profile of Mont Sainte-Victoire, often with the valley of the Arc in the foreground and the impressive intrusion of a lengthy new railway viaduct.

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The Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley

Paul Cezanne

Work Overview