Boy in a Red Vest 1889

Paul Cézanne made this painting with oil on canvas. Rather than using a traditional academic painting technique with blended brushwork, Cézanne’s visible brushstrokes are structural and architectural. He patiently built up the image from discrete strokes and blocks of color. You can see how the materiality of the oil paint – its viscosity, its capacity to reflect light – influences the way the image reads. The cumulative effect of these strokes gives the painting a tactile surface. Cézanne’s approach suggests an attitude toward labor: not a quick, bravura performance, but a slow, methodical construction. It is almost as if the painting is a kind of craftwork: something assembled from constituent parts. By focusing on the fundamental elements of artmaking, Cézanne transformed the medium and expanded its possibilities. He brought a strikingly new perspective to the canvas, one that continues to challenge our preconceptions about art.