VISUAL MEDITATION - Cezanne's "A Painter at Work"
- Paul G. Chandler
- Jun 28
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 29
By Paul G. Chandler - June 28, 2025:
When visiting an art museum, without exception, I encounter an artwork that I didn't previously know existed that speaks to me in a transcendent way, leading to profound reflection. On a recent visit to the Denver Art Museum, an artwork, somewhat surprisingly, that quickened my soul, was by none other than one of my artist heroes, Paul Cézanne, the French Post-Impressionist painter.
Cézanne was an artist who altered conventional approaches to perspective and broke established rules of art. Perhaps this is why both Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso are said to have remarked that Cézanne "is the father of us all."
Titled "A Painter at Work," it is a small endearing painting that I find evokes a sense of contemplation. It is often understood to be depicting his older artist mentor and friend Camille Pissarro painting out in the fields, or his childhood friend, Justin Gabet. Who knows really? It doesn't matter.
In it Cézanne movingly captures the magical and spiritual moment of creating. If you stand in quiet reflection in front of it, and allow its "sweetness" to soak into your spirit, there is no telling of where it might meditatively lead you.
I encourage you to to allow yourself a gentle reflective moment with it, and see where it leads you. I recall how the painter and art theorist Émile Bernard described Cézanne, following a visit with him: "Truly, his way of working was a reflection with a brush in his hand."
There is an element of the prophetic in the painting as well. On October 25, 1906, at the age of 67, Cézanne was caught in a storm while painting in a field. After painting for two more hours he decided to go home. On the way he collapsed and lost consciousness. He was taken home by a passing driver of a laundry cart. Due to hypothermia, he contracted severe pneumonia. His housekeeper rubbed his arms and legs to restore circulation, and as a result he regained consciousness. The next day, Cézanne went outside to work on what would become his last painting. While working, he fainted again, and was carried to his bed, and he never left it, dying a few days later, on October 22, 1906.
Thankfully, he left us a huge body of artwork, having painted over 1300 paintings. And I am profoundly blessed to have been able to spend a quiet reflective moment with this little gem..."A Painter at Work."
