“Boy in a red vest”, Paul Cezanne – description of the painting

Description of the picture:

The boy in the reddish vest is Paul Cezanne. 1888-1889. Canvas, oil. 81 x 64 cm
Colorful, “vibrating” colors of paints and large strokes make a memory of active movement, which assigns unusual dynamics to a static image. The painting depicts a child seated with one elbow resting on one arm.

The master occasionally used sitters, but to create this series of paintings he invited a young Italian, who forever remained in the memory of his descendants thanks to the exceptional skill of the artist.

Four oil paintings and two watercolors were painted with this sitter. They all use the same motive, the boy is all dressed in a reddish vest. Canvases are considered one of the best works of Cezanne. They are as if written in a single breath.

Thanks to the special writing technique and the use of a large number of different colors, the picture looks like a synthesis of painting and sculpture. The contours circled in black blurry lines, the “modeling” of the form with multidirectional brush strokes, colors that both seem local and complex in structure – all this impresses with its unusual and extraordinary approach to color and shape.

Several deliberate inaccuracies were made in the image of the anatomy of the human body. Cezanne was an experienced and knowledgeable artist, so these points are not mistakes, but special artistic methods that enhance the effect of the canvas on the viewer. The boy has too long a forearm, a strange elbow of a bent arm, as if with several joints, and an overly large ear. But all these absurdities fit into a single concept. They create a feeling of special flexibility, plasticity of the young body, emphasize the details and elements that the artist wanted to highlight.

Despite the straightforwardness of the plot, all preserved canvases delight with the unusual approach of the master and the liveliness of the image. Even during the life of the artist, they were marked as iconic works in his work."