New York City

A subway crossing the Manhattan Bridge at night, not quite as beautiful as when two subways cross it going in opposite directions...

the Smoker

Paul Cèzanne
The Smoker
1901

You know those yearly planners that have an image for every week?  I got an "Impressionists" one for 2011.  This week's is Paul Cèzanne's, The Smoker.  Right away I notice the little still life in the back, a few apples and an unidentified  bottle.  I think if a portrait like this by Cèzanne didn't have that little addition, I would feel uneasy, like something is wrong, terribly out of it's place.  But with the apples there everything is in its place.  It's not just a backdrop, it's as if those items were the man's companions.  At first glance one thinks this man is lonely, lost in a quiet room.  But no, he is in his proper place, in his thoughts, with his own world.  Also I've noticed that Cèzanne's bottles, although never crisply painted, are always open, with the cork already sticking out.  The bottle was started, and closed for a little break.  It gives a sense of continuity; like the bottle is not just a useless item of decoration.  It's constantly being used.  And such is the man.  He is not a useless lonely man, he has a full part in this world, but here he is on a break.

I'm not sure which version of the painting is truer to the original, but in my version the man's eyes are fully open.  He is not falling asleep, not bored.  He is alert.  He does not seem to be looking at something in his surrounding, but he is looking at his thoughts, almost imagining them in front of himself.  Of course, he is 'the smoker.'  So what can I say about the pipe.  You know often someone in a painting with a pipe in their mouth gains a sort of maturity, or deepness.  Here, though, I think he could easily do without the pipe.  Maybe Cèzanne painted it in last moment just to give the painting a title...probably not.  But his pipe is only reiterating that the man has won a couple moments for himself and his own thoughts, away from the needy world around him.

clock

it's strange, you always hear the clock ticking at other people's houses, but you never notice it at your own..

:-)

Happy New Year!

All the best in 2011!