Modern scholarship's conception of Paul Cézanne as an artistic failure tortured by sexual and social anxieties stems from sensationalized narrative rather than historical fact. Through an examination of primary evidence, my thesis refutes the conception of failure to normalize Cézanne amongst independent artists of his time. Émile Zola's unflattering fictional representation of Cézanne in The Masterpiece (1885), Émile Bernard and Ambroise Vollard's exaggerated biographies of the artist, and the twentieth-century critical emphasis on psychoanalysis cemented Cézanne's negative legacy. Rather than follow the tradition of Cézanne's as a failure, I promote formalist critic Roger Fry and structuralist scholar Richard Shiff's analyses. While I concede that Cézanne's reclusive personality and lack of public exhibitions furthered the public's misconception of him as a failure, I disagree with modern scholars' portrayal of Cézanne as a victim of his own insecurities. An investigation of Cézanne's refusals by the Salon des Beaux-arts and his lack of gallery exhibition does not evidence technical failure, but rather individual artistic vision. Cézanne dismissed academic convention to focus on a tangible connection between the artist's eye, his hand, and his creation. In this thesis, Cézanne's late bather paintings provide a case study to disprove assumptions of failure. The three Large Bathers paintings are not manifestations of Cézanne's fear of women and discomfort with nude models, but studies in composition and figural abstraction. Referencing the 2012 Gauguin, Cézanne, Matisse: Visions of Arcadia exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Arts, I counter the presence of Arcadian myth within Cézanne's late work. Ultimately, my thesis argues that Cézanne's legacy should not be shrouded in a myth of rejection, but rather should emphasize the artist's revolutionary focus on plasticity, materiality, and experiential act of painting. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Art History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester, 2013. / March 22, 2012. / Academic Salon, Bathers, Fin-de-siècle France, Historiography, Paul Cézanne,
Psychoanalysis / Includes bibliographical references. / Lauren S. Weingarden, Professor Directing Thesis; Adam Jolles, Committee Member; Stephanie Leitch, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_183809 |
| Contributors | Mandziuk, Natalie Marie (authoraut), Weingarden, Lauren S. (professor directing thesis), Jolles, Adam (committee member), Leitch, Stephanie (committee member), Department of Art History (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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