Often, leading painters develop a single element or characteristic with great force. But Cézanne’s art is comprehensive. Color, drawing, modeling, structure, touch and expression are carried evenly in his work.
He admitted to the canvas a great span of perception and mood, greater than that of his Impressionist friends. He can be passionate and cool, grave and light; he is always honest. Here, the colors are an everyday mix of warm and cool, dark and light; he mixes the weighty figures of the men with trinkets like the pipes on the walls; and his honesty does not alter the figures’ ordinary faces.
