Paul Cezanne (January 19, 1839 - October 22, 1906), the painter of and from Aix-en-Provence, was the bridge from Impressionism to Cubism. In paintings such as the 1885 Mont Sainte-Victoire and 1887 Madame Cezanne we can see the inspiration for the Cubists and even the Fauvists.

Life and work
Cezanne began with the light, airy painting of the Impressionists but and gradually solidified it and made it more architectural. In his words "I want to make of Impressionism something solid and lasting like the art in the museums." He structurally ordered whatever he perceived into simple forms and colour planes to create the most "telling image" of the subject matter. Such an exploration led him to the painting of several still lifes. His paintings were included in the first exhibition of the Salon des Refuses in 1863, which displayed works not accepted by the jury of the official Paris Salon who rejected Cezanne's submissions every year between 1864 and 1869.

To early 20th Century Modernists, Cezanne was the founder of modern painting; Henri Matisse called him "the father of us all". His geometric essentialisation of forms influenced cubism in particular. He is widely known as the father of modern art.

Cezanne and the important novelist emile Zola were friends from childhood and youth, but broke in later life over Zola's fictionalized depiction of Cezanne in the novel L'Oeuvre (The Masterpiece, 1886).

On May 10, 1999, Cezanne's painting Rideau, Cruchon et Compotier sold for US$ 60.5 million, the fourth highest price paid for a painting up to that time.

In 1906 Paul Cezanne collapsed while painting in the open during a thunderstorm. One week later, on October 15, he died from pneumonia.

-Wikipedia