Rocks and Trees (Rochers et arbres)

Rocks and Trees (1904) at the Barnes Foundation is one of the late forest and rock studies Cézanne made in the Bibémus quarry region near Aix-en-Provence and in the Provençal countryside. By 1904 Cézanne was at the apex of his powers but working in near total isolation from Paris, absorbed by the landscape around his family's Jas de Bouffan and the geological drama of Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Bibémus quarry. These rock and tree subjects allowed him to address fundamental questions of form, structure, and space—how to construct three-dimensional presence on a two-dimensional surface without recourse to traditional perspective. The Barnes Foundation holds the greatest concentration of Cézanne's late work outside France.

Interlocking planes of rock, foliage, and sky are organized through Cézanne's characteristic system of parallel diagonal brushstrokes—the 'constructive stroke'—that modulate color to build form. Greens and ochres are articulated as adjacent facets rather than blended surfaces, creating the sensation of solid volume through color rather than tonal chiaroscuro.