Mont Sainte-Victoire, CourtauldAI

Towering in the distance, the mountain you see here is Mont Sainte-Victoire, a peak in the south of France that Paul Cézanne painted again and again throughout his life. He grew up near this very landscape in Provence, and the mountain became something of an obsession for him. He returned to it more than sixty times in paintings and watercolors, studying how its shape held steady while the light and seasons shifted around it. This version, painted in the late 1880s, is one of the most beloved of the series.

Notice how Cézanne frames the whole scene with the branches of a large pine tree, which reach across the top of the canvas like a natural arch. Below, the valley spreads out in patches of green fields, small houses, and a thin viaduct cutting through the middle. Rather than blending his colors smoothly, Cézanne built the picture out of small, deliberate brushstrokes that almost feel like building blocks. This approach, where solid form matters more than fleeting detail, helped pave the way for Cubism and modern art that followed. He once said he wanted to "make of Impressionism something solid and lasting," and looking at this calm, sturdy view, you can see exactly what he meant.