La Maison du docteur Gachet

Painted in 1873 at Auvers-sur-Oise, this rare early landscape shows the house of Dr Paul Gachet, the eccentric physician who befriended many Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters and would later care for Van Gogh in his final weeks. Cézanne stayed at Auvers in 1872-1873 under the influence of Camille Pissarro, who lived nearby and whose Impressionist plein-air method Cézanne was then studying. The Gachet house canvas marks a transitional moment: the handling still owes something to Impressionism yet already shows Cézanne's tendency to emphasise the architectural solidity of buildings over atmospheric effect.

The palette is relatively cool and muted compared to Cézanne's later Provençal works, reflecting the northern French light of the Oise valley. The house is rendered with more conventional perspective than his mature work, though already the brushwork is building planes rather than flickering with Impressionist light effects. The garden vegetation is painted with short, curving strokes.