Cézanne – Portrait of Madame Cézanne

This is Paul Cézanne's portrait of his wife, Hortense Fiquet, who met Cézanne at nineteen and went on to model for him for the next thirty years.

Here she sits with an expressionless face — not out of displeasure, but simply her natural look. She reportedly never complained even after sitting motionless for hours, which suited Cézanne perfectly: with no distractions, he could focus entirely on the painting itself. Though the portrait looks almost casually composed, it conceals a remarkably precise symmetry, with her face dividing cleanly in two around the line of her nose. To keep that symmetry from feeling too rigid, Cézanne angled the chair slightly off-center.

The lighter patches of her clothing aren't painted at all — they're the bare white canvas left exposed, an unusual technique for the time. Painted quickly enough that individual brushstrokes remain visible, the portrait can look unfinished at first glance, but that same rapid touch is what gives it its sense of life.