I once traveled to the south of France in early spring because I wanted to see the landscapes painted by the painter Cézanne. As I was taking a taxi to the city from the TGV station on the outskirts of Aix-en-Provence, the shape of "that mountain" came into my view. I couldn't help but mumble, "Is that the Sainte-Victoire?" and the driver replied curtly, "Oui."
The painting of Sainte-Victoire has left an impression on me ever since I saw it at the Bridgestone Museum of Art in Tokyo when I was a child. Perhaps this is the same feeling that foreigners who come to Japan admire Hokusai see Mt. Fuji. The happy encounter continued at a hotel located in an alley in the old town of Aix. When I stepped out onto the old-fashioned balcony of my room, I could see the misty, lavender-colored mountain in the distance.
The hotel was an old mansion that had been renovated, and there were no other guests staying there. I heard from the owner of the mansion that until about 100 years ago, it was owned by an art dealer and was often visited by Cézanne and his close friend, the writer Zola. When I came here with the intention of visiting the artist's original landscape, I felt as if I had been taken straight into his heart.
I learned about Cézanne's character from the novel "The Work, L'Œuvre" which Zola wrote based on the real life of the painter. Although his works may seem simple, the complex composition and coloring made me think of the artist's struggles. When I toured Cézanne's wealthy father's house in Aix, "Jas de Bouffant," and the contrasting "atelier des Lauves," Cézanne's studio in his later years, I saw that the darkness of the artist's heart remained there.
However, Zola's novel only describes the first half of the protagonist's life as an artist. An unsuccessful painter continued to paint asking his wife as a model, until he becomes mentally ill and takes his own life in front of the painting. In the story, Zola has let the painter's wife shout, "I'm alive!." The painter did not love the wife in front of him, but rather the ideal he found only in the painting.
Around 1886, when this novel was published, Cézanne left Paris and became reclusive in Aix. In reality, he continues to energetically create works using the landscapes of Aix as his subject matter. In particular, he painted Sainte-Victoire as seen from near Love's atelier. It is said that the reason he died 10 years later was because he aggravated his illness by creating while outside in the heavy rain.
What kind of existence is Sainte-Victoire who can steal artist's soul? The distant view from Love's hill wasn't enough, so I went to the village at the foot of the mountain. There, a rock mass that glowed pale purple in the light stood powerfully against the red earth. Did Cézanne depict the world he found at the end of his suffering, rather than the world he suffered to love? Suddenly, I thought of the ending of Zola's novel.