Arts: Cezanne Monument

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Scarcely a painter in all the history of Art has been so vilified, so passionately abhorred as Paul Cezanne (1839-1906). The salons were closed to him; his private exhibitions were succès de scandale; through connivance with the heirs, the Louvre managed to avoid owning the three paintings by him in the Caillebotte collection.

But History's repetitions prove that after excessive hostility one may expect unreasoning cult. Certainly Cezanne has passed through these phases; he has been the sanctified father, rather indiscriminately, of all the post-impressionist movements. Now he is fast becoming "good form", among the hidebound conservatives. No museum would dare to be without a Cezanne. In Paris, a retrospective exhibition of the artist's work is on view at Berheim Fils, Place de la Madeleine, with an admission charge to swell the fund for a proposed monument to him. It is encouraging to know that the artist engaged to achieve the monument is no less than the eminent sculptor Aristide Maillol. Said Paul Cezanne, son of the painter, when asked what his father would have thought of having a monument: "I think he would have preferred to have another picture in the Louvre."