Atelier Cézanne

Paul Cézanne had this studio built on a hill above Aix-en-Provence in 1902, and it was here that he worked for the last four years of his life, producing some of his most important paintings — including the final series of large bathers.

The studio is preserved exactly as he left it, down to the objects on the shelves — the ginger pot, the skull, the apples, the fabric drapes — the same objects that appear again and again in his still lifes. You recognise everything. It's a bit surreal, like walking into a painting.

The light is the real revelation. A large north-facing window runs almost the entire height of one wall. Cézanne had it built to this scale specifically to flood the studio with the cold, consistent northern light he preferred for his work.