Paul Cezanne was for the most part self-taught. Denied official recognition in Paris, he returned again and again to Provence to create his own style, largely independent of other artists' influence. The author outlines the development of that style against the background of Cezanne's personal life - the close friendship with Emile Zola during the artist's happy childhood in Aix; his fight to pursue an artistic career despite an antagonistic father; his extended sojourns in Paris and his acquaintance there with the impressionists; his relationship with, and eventual marriage to, the artist's model Hortense Fiquet; and the lonely final years, devoted with obsessive single-mindedness to the realization of an artistic vision that laid the foundations of modern art. While including discussion of Cezanne's still lifes and "Bathers" series, the book focuses on his images of Provence - the coast near Marseille, the villages around Aix, and Mont Sainte-Victoire. Reproductions of some 50 oil paintings, and of several watercolors and drawings, testify to the enduring fascination that this countryside held for Cezanne and to its formative influence on his art.