Post-Impressionism: Cézanne, van Gogh, and Gauguin

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), who exhibited with the Impressionists early in his career before withdrawing to work in relative isolation near his native Aix-en-Provence, sought to give Impressionist color a new sense of underlying structure. Repeatedly painting subjects such as Mont Sainte-Victoire and groups of card players, Cézanne built form through patches of color and shifting perspective rather than traditional linear drawing, famously advising a younger painter to "treat nature by means of the cylinder, the sphere, and the cone." His analytical approach to form profoundly shaped the following generation, and he is often described as a crucial bridge toward Cubism and much of early twentieth-century painting.