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Blockbuster art exhibits have influenced interior design since King Tut ignited a national craze for all things Egyptian in the '70s. Now it's painter Paul Cezanne's turn in the decorators' circle.
Usually grouped with the Post-Impressionists and considered a founding father of modern art, Cezanne (1839-1906) is the star of Cezanne in Provence, a centenary exhibit that's at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., until May 7, then moves to his hometown of Aix-en-Provence in June.
The show already is attracting long lines of visitors enthralled by the sun-drenched, color-saturated idyllic images of the painter's native province in the south of France. There's no mystery about why so many people who love this painter have also embraced Provencal culture.
"Provence after the 18th century was not a really rich country. It was a country of simple people with a very nice way of life, very close to nature, to the water, to the Mediterranean," says Noelle Duck, French journalist and author of Provence Style, about the traditional look of French country homes and how to achieve it in contemporary settings.
"Of course, the work of all these painters is a transposition of the truth. Cezanne used bright, strong colors, which was not the reality but an interpretation of the artist."
It's a wildly popular interpretation to this day. In spite of America's recent frosty feelings toward France over its opposition to the Iraq war, American homeowners continue to be among the most enthusiastic fans of French country design, says Betty Lou Phillips, a Dallas-based interior designer and author of seven books on the subject.
"The secrets of French design are all there in those paintings ... a way of life that mingles elegance and ease," Phillips says. "It's relaxed yet refined, and steeped in the past while mixing easily with the comforts of the 21st century."
Here are a few ways to draw inspiration from Cezanne's art to create a bit of Provence in your own home.
Contributing: Mary Cadden
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