Mont Sainte-Victoire

1902–04

Oil on canvas, 73 × 91.9 cm. Philadelphia Museum of Art

The mountain, built from blues, violets and grays, rises over a broad plain beneath an open sky. Small strokes of green bring life to both the peak and the sky.

Patches of color laid side by side build space: blue-browns up front, reds and greens across the middle, blues at the back. Color, not linear perspective, sets the distance.
Look at the mountain: it keeps a dark outer contour and lines across its face.
Rough strokes of ochre and two kinds of green make the middle plain look like a quilt.
The dealers Ambroise Vollard and Bernheim-Jeune bought it in February 1907.
It entered Philadelphia's Elkins Collection in 1936, bought from the dealer Paul Rosenberg.

In 1901 he bought land on Les Lauves, a hill just north of Aix, and built a studio there. Over two dozen late works show the mountain from there.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · PD-Art