Customer Reviews

Cezanne: A Biography (270 illustrations, including 118 in color, and four gatefolds)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have read many books on Cezanne over the past 10 years and in my opinion this is the best. For a combination of well-written text and excellent reproductions of the paintings this book cannot be beat. The text is jargon free. Mr. Rewald was a wonderful writer and he gives you a warm and sympathetic biography of a great artist and complex and difficult man. Cezanne was very neurotic. He had a fear of women and would not use nude models. His famous bather series was worked up from photographs and plaster casts, etc. He could be very anti-social: he sometimes would cross the street to avoid meeting someone he knew. He was very emotional and struggled to keep his emotions under control. This was reflected in his work. His early work was full of violence and shadows and you feel as though he barely was able to keep himself in check as he coated the canvas in a thick impasto. The later, carefully controlled and beautifully harmonized works are the more familiar to the general public. The cover gives you some indication of the beautiful reproductions which are inside this book. This is a great addition and in my opinion a must have for anyone's art library.

Rewald's biography of Cezanne is a very fine piece of work. It is beautifully written with substantial information about the artist & his work. As for all reputable art books, the paper quality is very good to render lovely reproductions of the paintings.
It is very nicely presented & a pleasure to read. . . or just look at the paintings.

I really enjoyed this wonderful book about a wonderfully delightful artist. I would recommend reading it if you are a Cezanne admirer, absolutely a wonderful book!

This has been on my coffee table for a few years. I can't put it away, the cover is so beautiful! And it invites my guests at home to look through it. I read heavily on French Impressionism, particularly Cezanne. This is a excellent history and art book. And makes quite an impression.

I was looking for a good biography of Paul Cezanne and stumbled across this one. I was a bit wary because it was written by a scholar and I thought it would be overly technical and academic. To my happy surprise, Reward's book, though based on thorough scholarship (it's grounded in his dissertation research), is both readable and enjoyable. Reward's narrative style is engaging yet informative. In addition, the book is rich with high quality illustrations. If you've read bits and pieces about Cezanne--his life and work--and want to dig deeper, this is the book for you.

This is a wonderful book about Cezanne. Every artist who is studying art history and esp. the impressionists and post-impressionists should own this book.