Cezanne's Mont Sainte-Victoire with a large Pine c. 1887

Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) was instrumental in the transition from Impressionism to Cubism and he is categorised as a post impressionist. He liked working in isolation and he spent much time in southern France where he painted a series of paintings of Mont Sainte-Victoire. 

Cezanne was very interested in structure and although later in his career he did develop a light and airy painting style as seen here, his paintings are solid and architectural. He ordered his subject into simple forms and colour planes, and he simplified naturally occurring forms to geometric forms e.g. the tree trunk to a cylinder. In this painting the shape of the branches echo the outline of the mountains.

Cezanne used small brushstrokes to build up his picture. He used blocks of colour and he would prominently outline forms such as the tree trunk and the fields in a dark blue.

Cezanne's simplification of the landscape, his structured parallel brushstrokes as well as the bold colours paved the way towards abstractism.

I like the way he has managed to convey the scene of a fertile valley and mountain beyond without letting the painting get too chaotic - I imagine in real life that view was far busier with more fields and less distinction between them.