Paul Cezanne - (1839 - 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th century conception of artistic endeavor to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century. Cezanne can be said to form the bridge between late 19th century Impressionism and the early 20th centurys new line of artistic enquiry, Cubism. The line attributed to both Matisse and Picasso that Cezanne is the father of us all cannot be easily dismissed. Cezannes work demonstrates a mastery of design, color, composition and draftsmanship. Cezannes often repetitive, exploratory brushstrokes are highly characteristic and clearly recognizable. He used planes of color and small brushstrokes that build up to form complex fields. The paintings convey Cezannes intense study of his subjects. After Cezanne died in 1906, his paintings were exhibited in Paris in a large museum-like retrospective in September 1907. The 1907 Cezanne retrospective at the Salon d Automne greatly affected the direction that the avant-garde in Paris took, lending credence to his position as one of the most influential artists of the 19th century and to the advent of Cubism. Portrait at left is a self-portrait.