The Artist's Son, Paul

Paul Cezanne

National Gallery of Art

Shown from the waist up, pale-skinned young man wearing a bowler hat looks at us from the corners of his eyes in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled to our right, and he cuts his dark eyes back to look at us, his lips pursed. He has a wide face, round cheeks, and a narrow chin. His white lapels are flipped up, and he wears a buttoned blue jacket. The black bowler hat seems a little too small for his head. The man and setting are painted with areas of mottled, streaked color. For instance, his peachy face is shaded with visible strokes of slate blue. His white collar is a blend of ice blue and frosty green, and his jacket is built up with daubs and strokes of marine blue, moss green, and gray. The white of the canvas underneath shows through in some areas, especially in the jacket. The wrist of one hand resting in the man’s lap is visible, and the back rail of the wooden chair in which he sits peeks out past the shoulder to our left. The wall behind him is painted loosely with the suggestion of a diamond pattern in laurel and olive green, parchment brown, rust orange, and muted blue. A rail or frame running close and parallel to the right edge of the canvas is patterned with elongated red teardrop shapes outlined by white, against a celestial-blue background.