Paul Cezanne was one of many artists associated with the Impressionists. He learned their painting style from Camille Pissarro, the great Impressionist master who recognized Cezanne's artistic potential early on. Yet he soon began to strive for something more than the mere representation of a momentary impression, embarking upon his quest for the absolute essence of the motif.
The question of "finished or unfinished" is examined by the authors from a range of different perspectives. The paintings themselves, each of which is discussed in detail, offer the reader an opportunity to reconstruct Cezanne's artistic work on the basis of their varying degrees of completion. Comparisons between fully executed paintings and apparently unfinished ones provide insights into Cezanne's creative process. The motif groups featured here - portraits, still lifes, landscapes (of which many deal with the Mont Sainte-Victoire) and bathers - bear eloquent witness to Cezanne's specific working approach and his diverse pictorial solutions.