Jerry Weiss on the Sects of Figurative Painting

Paul Cézanne, Boy in a Red Waistcoat, 1888–90. Oil on canvas, 35 1/4 x 28 1/2 in. Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art.
Paul Cézanne, Boy in a Red Waistcoat, 1888–90. Oil on canvas, 35 1/4 x 28 1/2 in. Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art.

In “Boy in a Red Waistcoat,” his latest article for the “Master Class” column of Artist’s Magazine, Jerry Weiss suggests Cézanne had a connection to classical sources far greater than many of today’s classical realists would acknowledge. “Cézanne was dedicated to supplementing the study of the old masters with the observation of nature,” writes Weiss, “an ambition that we can hardly improve upon. He was less interested in the surfaces of classical paintings than their structural design, and his eye for composition was redoubtable.” Weiss’s article (PDF here) appears in the December 2014 issue of the Artist’s Magazine.

Keywords: ,