Mount Sainte-Victoire was to become a classic motiv in Cézanne’s work, appearing in more than 80 pictures between 1870 and 1906. The mountain became a crucial subject for Cézanne from 1885-1886. To begin with, his views showed it as still distant and inaccessible. Gradually, however, the painter closed in on his subject, moving along the road to Tholonet. In the last years, man and mountain were alone together. On his canvases the painter reconciled its warm and cold tones, playing with complementary colors, carving out the landscape in abstract terms, not seeking to “depict” a harmonious countryside but to compose a work in parallel with nature, with its own intrinsic being. Cézanne’s views of Mount Sainte-Victoire changed our perception of the locality for ever. The mountain passed from a state of nature to the status of an art object, becoming part of the heritage of mankind.

When Picasso moved into the château of Vauvenargues on the mountain’s northern slopes, he said to his marchand: