Man with a Pipe

In this portrait, Paul Cézanne seems to have carefully considered every brushstroke in order to convey the sitter's features and character. The man, a farmworker from the artist's family estate, is portrayed as a stoical figure, his weathered face suggesting a working life spent outdoors. Cézanne made a number of paintings of rural workers at this time. He wrote: ‘I love above all the appearance of people who have grown old without breaking with old customs’.