View of the Domaine Saint-Joseph

Paul Cézanne knew this stretch of countryside intimately. Painted in the late 1880s near Aix-en-Provence, the town where he spent most of his life, "View of the Domaine Saint-Joseph" shows a small group of pale buildings nestled into the folds of the hills. The estate was familiar territory for the artist, and the warm, sunbaked colors carry the feeling of southern France on a bright day. Rather than smooth brushwork, Cézanne built the whole scene from small blocks of color that fit together like pieces of a mosaic, from the greens of the trees to the soft blues of the distant mountains.

What set Cézanne apart was his lack of interest in copying nature exactly. He wanted to find the solid shapes hidden underneath the surface of things, breaking the landscape into planes and patches that give the painting a sturdy, almost architectural feel. That way of seeing made him a link between the Impressionists who came before and the modern painters who followed, Picasso among them. Picasso even called Cézanne "the father of us all," and paintings like this one help explain why. The result is a calm and grounded view of Provence, still and warm, held together by color alone.