Recently I've been reading a catalog on a Cezanne exhibition in Karlsruhe, Germany called "Metamorphoses," which explores how Cezanne overlapped the different genres of still life, landscape and figure painting. One essay by Alexander Eiling points out that Cezanne, late in his life, advised the painter Charles Camoin "to make copies of Veronese or Rubens in the Louvre as if he were making them from nature." This idea of copying Old Masters as if copying from nature goes back at least to an early 18th century book on painting, and was not invented by Cezanne. Eiling goes on to write: "Cezanne's intense exploration of the practice of copying thus aimed not so much at reproduction as at transformation. The copied artworks became superordinate providers of structure within which he could articulate his perceptions of nature. The copy thus served Cezanne as a starting point..." I'll just leave that thought there for you to ponder.
This small painting depicts a view of the shuttle bridge over Dean Street near Franklin Avenue in Brooklyn. The cars, bridge, buildings etc. all become abstract shapes, especially when the painting is seen from a distance so that one cannot make out what it is right away. 6x8 oil on panel.
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