The genius of Cezanne

Pity the poor curators of major exhibitions struggling to find fresh takes on famous masters. The curators of Tate Modern’s new Cezanne blockbuster have begun by dropping the acute accent from his surname, apparently a Parisian affectation not in use on the artist’s home turf. Anticipating grumbles about another major exhibition devoted to a dead white male artist, they have emphasised Cezanne’s outsider status by painting him as a provincial from Provence. It was a role the artist liked to play in Paris, once famously excusing himself from shaking Manet’s hand on the grounds that he hadn’t washed in a week.

With or without his accent, Cezanne remains French. He was in fact the only full- blooded Frenchman among the three great pioneers of post-impressionism, Van Gogh being Dutch and Gauguin boasting Peruvian descent. He was also, coincidentally, the only one of the three to emulate the masterworks in the Louvre.