« The whole world will come to Aix-en-Provence in 2025 », rejoiced Marie-Pierre Sicard-Desnuelle, deputy mayor during a press conference given at the Musée d’Orsay. This morning, Tuesday November 26, the city presented one of the highlights of the coming year: Cezanne 2025, a cultural season paying tribute to the painter in his hometown. On the program: a major exhibition event, scientific discoveries, the key places of the artist’s work restored… From the bastide of Jas de Bouffan to the Atelier des Lauves, via the quarries and the Bibémus shed and the Granet museum, Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) will be everywhere in Aix-en-Provence next year.
130 works by Cezanne brought together
The flagship event of Cezanne 2025 will be “Cezanne au Jas de Bouffan”, which will take place from June 28 to October 12 at the Granet museum. The exhibition will bring together 130 works by the artist, including 100 from all over the world (Washington, Philadelphia, Chicago, London, Tokyo, Zurich, Budapest, etc.) with prestigious loans such as The Card Players from the Orsay Museum. The curators Bruno Ely, chief curator and director of the Granet museum, and Denis Coutagne, president of the Paul Cezanne Society, chief curator of heritage and former director of the Granet museum, will offer to retrace 40 years of the life and career of the painter, from 1859 to 1899. The route will highlight the portraits of those close to Cezanne, his landscapes, his still lifes, his bathers, the people of Jas de Bouffan and his work at the Lauves workshop, the artist’s last.
Paul Cezanne, The Card Players, between 1890 and 1895, oil on canvas, 47 x 56.5 cm, Paris, Musée d’Orsay © Musée d’Orsay, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Patrice Schmidt
In parallel with the exhibition at the Granet museum, two exhibitions will be offered at the Vieil Aix museum and the Pavillon Vendôme. The first location will present a recontextualization of the artist in the city between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, while the second will show how Cezanne was exhibited in the 1950s.
Paul Cezanne, Jas de Bouffan House and Farm, 1885-1887, oil on canvas, 60.8 x 73.8 cm, National Gallery Prague, Czech Republic © National Gallery Prague 2023
A journey in the footsteps of Cezanne
« You have to come to Aix to understand the work of Cezanne », explained Denis Coutagne. During the opening of the exhibition, several Aix sites will open their doors to the public. visitors will be able to discover the Atelier des Lauves, which has been fully accessible since its redevelopment, or the Bibémus quarries within the perimeter of the Sainte-Victoire mountain (on guided and high-end tours). These immersive visits will allow you to get to the heart of the painter’s creative process. A mobile application In the footsteps of Cezanne will allow people equipped with a smartphone to discover the landscapes and places where the artist lived and painted and to compare them with the works displayed in augmented reality. The highlight of the show, the Jas de Bouffan bastide will partially reopen its doors. In this family property, Cezanne created his first paintings from 1859 and continued to create until 1899.
Quarries of Bibémus, Aix-en-Provence ©M. Fraisset
A discovery that calls into question the chronological order of the artist’s first works
During the restoration begun in 2017 by the city, several discoveries were made. Little-known treasures have been revealed on the walls of the Grand Salon. In August 2023, restorers unearthed a brush wipe, then a 5 to 6 m² fragment of a work painted by Cezanne. It would be about The entrance to the port according to Claude Lorrain, the first of nine paintings that Cezanne created on the walls of the room between 1859 and 1869, authenticated by the Paul Cezanne Society. “ This discovery seems to call into question the established chronological order of the creation of the panels painted on the walls of the Grand Salon », Explains the press kit. Analyzes must still be carried out by specialists, but this find could indicate that Cezanne considered himself a decorative painter when he was between 20 and 30 years old.
Between 2025 and 2026, the bastide will continue its renovation to become the “house of Cezanne”. Visitors will then be able to discover the highlighted Grand Salon, the restitution of the old-fashioned kitchen, the restoration of the room around the theme Leda and the Swanan educational tour on Cezanne and his work, and temporary exhibition rooms. All presented in an immersive journey.
Bastide du Jas de Bouffan, Aix-en-Provence ©Michel Fraisset
339,000 visitors expected
With this program and these reopenings after renovation, the city of Aix-en-Provence will offer from next year a solid heritage trail with the center of gravity of the bastide town of Jas de Bouffan. The tourist office expects 339,000 visitors for the exhibition at the Granet museum. The ticket office will open on December 9.
CEZANNE 2025
