The Brook (c. 1895–1900): Art, History and Details

The Brook (c. 1895–1900) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Paul Cezanne (French, 1839–1906).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Although Cezanne exhibited twice with the Impressionists, he rejected his friends’ goals of capturing the fleeting effects of light and atmosphere in their art. Instead, he sought to create balance among the forms and colors in his compositions. This painting depicts the valley of the Arc River that runs southeast of Cezanne’s home in Aix-en-Provence. Throughout the composition, he juxtaposed strokes of different hues, describing the leaves, branches, and the stream with color rather than drawing the outlines of forms.

Object facts

• Title: The Brook
• Date: c. 1895–1900
• Creator attribution: Paul Cezanne (French, 1839–1906)
• Culture: France, late 19th-early 20th Century
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on fabric
• Dimensions: Framed: 74.9 x 97.2 x 8.3 cm (29 1/2 x 38 1/4 x 3 1/4 in.); Unframed: 59.2 x 81 cm (23 5/16 x 31 7/8 in.)
• Collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960
• Department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1958.20

A detail from the museum

Cezanne rarely did preparatory sketches for his paintings. The shapes on the canvas are provided by tonal contrasts and color sensation.

Collection credit

Bequest of Leonard C. Hanna Jr.

Further reading listed by the museum

• Venturi, Lionello. Cézanne, Son Art, Son Oeuvre; 1,600 Illustrations. Paris: P. Rosenberg, 1936.
• Coe, Nancy. The History of the Collecting of European Paintings and Drawings in the City of Cleveland. Thesis M.A. Oberlin College 1955.
• Cleveland Museum of Art. In Memoriam: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Cleveland: The Museum, 1958.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.