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Paint with Paul Cezanne's colors!
This handmade watercolor set includes 18 pigments that were in Cezanne's watercolor palette. Each one is half-pan size.
Cezanne (1839-1906) was working hard to make it in the art world, but his artworks were often rejected for their unique style. Critics didn't understand his approach to painting. In the 1870s-80s, it was important to present your art in the Paris Salon, the official art exhibition of the French Academy. However, Cezanne's works were rejected by the Salon year after year.
Additionally, his artistic aspirations were not supported by his family. His father, a banker, wanted Cezanne to join banking, but he refused. Cezanne was a focused and meticulous man who wanted to become an artist. He studied fundamentals in his teen years and then had various mentors (including Camille Pissaro!) who helped him find his voice. He independently studied geometry, color theory, and other sciences that informed his style. Cezanne applied to study in the prestigious art school in Paris but was rejected due to his unconventional art style and lack of “polished” academic work.
Cezanne’s close childhood friend was Emile Zola, a famous author who reached the peak of his popularity in his late 20s. When they were in their 40s, Zola wrote a novel called “The Masterpiece”. It was about two friends - an artist and a novelist. In the novel, the artist works very hard but fails repeatedly until he burns out, falls into complete despair, and takes his own life, while the novelist becomes successful and famous due to his more wise and pragmatic approach to creativity. Cezanne read the manuscript and saw the artist’s character as a critical portrait of himself. After reading the novel, he never spoke with Zola again.
Shortly after the publication of the novel, Cezanne moved to a small town in the south of France and became a recluse. He painted outdoors obsessively, sometimes painting in the mountains for days. Locals described him as eccentric. One anecdote from that period is that when passers-by tried to approach him to see his easel or chat, he would shout at them and chase them away because they disturbed his focus. I guess, for that same reason, Cezanne never joined an art commune or group plein air that were popular with Impressionists at that time. He once joined Monet to paint outdoors, but couldn’t paint with him. Monet painted quickly and captured fleeting effects of light, and wasn’t concerned with meticulous underdrawing, while Cezanne’s approach was more methodical and less spontaneous. The two were complete opposites in their approach to plein air painting.
Cezanne continued to spend the majority of his life in a small town where he built a studio. He became well-known in Paris in his 50s and finally exhibited in the Paris Salon. He was admired by many, and his popularity and influence continued to grow for the rest of his life. Cezanne had a slow start to his career, but was able to achieve success and enjoy fame during his lifetime.
Cezanne’s palette includes bright reds, blues, and yellows with a couple of earth pigments and natural-looking greens, plus black and white. His use of black is visible in his artworks in the form of very sharp, contrasting shadows and outlines.
All colors in this palette are lightfast, highly pigmented, saturated, deep, and rich. Each one is a stand alone pigment (no blends!).