Conversations with Cezanne

Michael Doran has gathered texts by contemporaries of Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) – including artists, critics, and writers -that illuminate the influential painter’s philosophy of art especially in his late years. The book includes historically important essays by a dozen different authors, including Emile Bernard, Joaquim Gasquet, Maurice Denis, and Ambroise Vollard, along with selections from Cezanne’s own letters. In addition to the material included in the original French edition of the book, which has also been published in German, Italian, Spanish, and Japanese, this edition contains an introduction written especially of it by noted Cezanne scholar Richard Shiff. The book closes with Lawrence Gowing’s magisterial essay, “The logic of Organised Sensations”, first published in 1977 and long out of print. Cezanne’s work, and the thinking that lay behind it, have been of inestimable importance to the artists who followed him. This gathering of writings should be of interest to artists, writers, art historians – indeed to all students of modern art.

Author Biography

Michael Doran, who is both an art historian and a practicing artist, was formerly the Librarian of the Courtauld Institute in London.