ABSTRACT
There is something paradoxical in Cezanne's celebrity; and it is scarcely easier to explain than to explain Cezanne himself. Some writers admit that about 1890, at the period of his first visit to Tanguy's shop, he thought that Cezanne was a myth, perhaps the pseudonym of some artist well known for other efforts, and that he disbelieved in his existence. Since then he has had the honour of seeing him at Aix; and the remarks which he there gathered, collated with those of M. E. Bernard, may help to throw some light upon Cezanne's aesthetics. In opposition to modern pictures, a Cezanne inspires by itself, by its qualities of unity in composition and colour, in short by its painting. The painting of Cezanne is literally the essential art, the definition of which is so refractory to criticism, the realization of which seems impossible.
