Hunting Cabin in Provence (Cabane de chasse en Provence)

Hunting Cabin in Provence (1889) at the Barnes Foundation depicts a simple rural structure in the Provençal landscape near Aix-en-Provence. Cézanne painted rural buildings—farmhouses, stone huts, the Jas de Bouffan manor—as structural challenges equivalent to his geological subjects. The building's geometric volumes, their relationship to surrounding trees and sky, and the specific quality of the southern light on masonry and tile provided perfect material for his structural color experiments. By 1889 his method was fully mature: the planar stroke system and refusal of conventional perspective were established practice.

The cabin's geometric walls and roof planes are articulated through adjacent color patches of ochre, warm cream, and rust-red tile. Trees frame the structure with Cézanne's characteristic faceted foliage. The spatial recession is constructed through color temperature—warm foreground, cooler distance—rather than linear perspective.