Cézanne, Trees and House

This painting depicts a small village near Jas de Bouffan, the estate where Cézanne's family lived. He painted this view three times in total; besides the work shown here, the other two versions are held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the National Museum in Oslo.

The Metropolitan's version differs mainly in composition and spatial arrangement but otherwise closely resembles this one. The Oslo painting, by contrast, has a somewhat unfinished quality that sets it apart from both.

Cézanne often enjoyed returning to the same subject again and again, since for him the process of exploring how to paint mattered more than what he painted. As a result, these three versions of the same scene each developed their own distinct style.