Cezanne's "Mont Sainte-Victoire"

Cezanne, "Mont Sainte-Victoire," 1902-04, Oil on Canvas

Cezanne used the genre of Impressionism to capture the "truth" of reality, and for him, the truth of landscape consisted of geometric shapes piled atop one another, each comprised of different hues and values. His "Mount Sainte-Victoire" captures this motif. In the foreground, we see darker trees (though consisting of varied shades of forest green) and what appears to be a small village. Light hits the middle ground of the image as tones lighten and hints of yellow, orange, and beige peek through the greenery. In the background he represents a sky in competing values of light blues, periwinkle, greens, and greys. I appreciate the warms tones in the middle ground contrasting the cooler tones of the background, but am much more intrigued by his thick and blatant brush strokes, the background consisting of horizontal strokes and the middle ground of vertical strokes. The piece seems to capture some subconscious perspective of Cezanne--that the world is made up of small geometric units that, from far away, seamlessly create the world as perceived by humans.