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You have to have been in the loft at Jas de Bouffan and seen the hundreds of canvases piled up in there, mostly unfinished, dirty and battered, which he painted at that time, in order to understand the dogged, painful labor, the happy martyrdom that Cézanne underwent in order to take hold of his soul and of this land, in order as it were to fit them together in one interlocking whole, in the same gaze, the same craft.
Joachim Gasquet, Conversations avec Cézanne, Ed. Macula, 1978.
A place that has closer ties with the Aix Master than any other Cézanne was twenty years old when his father bought the estate in 1859 and sixty when it was sold in 1899. The two-story Provençal manor house, dating from the late 17th to early 18th centuries, is set in a park which has an avenue of chestnut trees that lend the property a certain air of nobility, a pond with fountains decorated with lions and dolphins, plus a small greenhouse hidden behind a cascade of greenery. The ancient trees of the park and the cluster of six farm buildings, on the edge of the estate today, were to be some of Cézanne’s favorite subjects.
The artist first took over the main drawing room, hanging his early pictures and sometimes painting directly on the walls, but in around 1885 he had the attic floor rebuilt as a studio. He found an endless variety of themes as the years went by: portraits of his father, the avenue of chestnut trees, the pool, the house, Mount Sainte-Victoire from the park, card players (using workers on the estate as his models).
After the death of the artist’s mother, the property was sold to Louis Granel. His daughter married Frédéric Corsy, a professor of medicine at Marseilles University, and their son Dr. Corsy sold the estate to the city of Aix-en-Provence in 1956, though he continued to hold it in usufruct until his death in 2002.
 For lovers of Cézanne in France and around the world, as well as for the residents of Aix and Provence, the Jas de Bouffan estate – never before opened to the general public – is a fascinating attraction, a place which retains an aura of mystique despite its direct links with so many of the painter’s celebrated works.
Sopra Group, sponsor of the restauration of the Jas de Bouffan, Paul Cézanne's family home in Aix-en-Provence, part of the French celebration Cézanne 2006 in honour of Paul Cézanne's centenary.
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