In the foregoing chapters, we discerned the possibility that Paul Cézanne (1839–1906), in his painted representations, was influenced by the transformed vision induced by passing sceneries seen from a moving train, which is a new vision in the second half of the nineteenth century.
　How, then, is Cézanne’s “realization of sensations,” one of his famous painting theories, related to the transformation of visual perception induced by the steam railway? Let’s analyze this problem from the viewpoint of the vision in sunlight and the vision from a moving train.
　First, in his letter dated September 8, 1906, Cézanne wrote to his son about his “realization of sensations” in his paintings as follows:

Finally I must tell you that as a painter I am becoming more clear-sighted before nature, but that with me the realization of my sensations is always painful. I cannot attain the intensity that is developped before my senses. I have not the magnificent richness of colouring that animates nature (1).

　This indicates that Cézanne’s sensations are intense, develop, and animate nature by the magnificent richness of coloring.
　Similarly, in his letter dated October 19, 1866, Cézanne told Émile Zola about his sensation in sunlight in his outdoor paintings as follows:

But you know all pictures painted inside, in the studio, will never be as good as those done outside. When out-of-door scenes are represented, the contrasts between the figures and the ground is astounding and the landscape is magnificent (2).

　In addition, in his letter dated July 2, 1876, Cézanne described to Camille Pissarro his sensation in sunlight in his outdoor paintings as follows:

The sun here is so tremendous that it seems to me as if the objects were silhouetted not only in black and white, but in blue, red, brown, and violet. I may be mistaken, but this seems to me to be the opposite of modelling (3).

　From these facts, we can understand that Cézanne perceived an object that was irradiated by intense sunlight as a “plan” (silhouette; outline figure), which stood out due to the intensity of the catoptric light. Moreover, we can judge that Cézanne perceived the plans as colored, shining plans by the magnificent richness of coloring, such as blue, red, brown, and violet as well as black and white (Fig. 1-Fig. 4).
　In other words, one of Cézanne’s sensations is the colored flattening of an object induced by viewing it in sunlight. In this case, we can interpret that Cézanne felt that the shadow-like flatness of each color plan is in complete contrast to the solidness by “modelling” (the expression of solidity through a continuous shift in local color) in Renaissance realism.
　We can surely ascertain that in his outdoor paintings (Fig. 5), Cézanne started from such a color plan mosaic to create the picture, especially in watercolor paintings such as The Mont Sainte-Victoire Seen from Les Lauves (1902-1906) (Fig. 6), The Mont Sainte-Victoire Seen from the Nortth of Aix (c. 1906) (Fig. 8), and Landscape in Provence (1895-1900) (Fig. 9).
　Further, we can understand that Cézanne used this painting technique to enrich color on the surface, especially in oil paintings such as The Mont Sainte-Victoire Seen from Les Lauves (1904-1906) (Fig. 7), Turning Road (c. 1904) (Fig. 10), and The Garden at Les Lauves (c. 1906) (Fig. 11).



　Interestingly, this colored flattening of an object induced by viewing it in sunlight, which was represented in his paintings, resembled the spotting of the object induced by viewing it from a moving train.
　Thus, we can suppose that Cézanne remembered his vision from a moving train through the pursuit of vision in sunlight in his paintings.
　For example, about Small Houses at Auvers-sur-Oise (1873-74) (Fig. 12) we can assume to the color plans repeated quickly and horizontally the representation of the vision from a moving train (Fig. 13) as well as the vision in sunlight.
　We should consider that Cézanne’s sensations were characterized by various aspects. Moreover, Cézanne actually praised the Mont Sainte-Victoire as seen from a moving train in his letter dated April 14, 1878, in which he says, “quel beu motif (what a beautiful motif)” (4).
　Therefore, the possibility that Cézanne’s realization of sensations included the transformation of visual perception induced by the steam railway is undeniable.


　(1) Paul Cézanne, Correspondance, recueillie, annotée et préfacée par John Rewald, Paris: Bernard Grasset, 1937; nouvelle édition révisée et augmentée, Paris: Bernard Grasset, 1978, p. 324. (Paul Cezanne, Letters, edited by John Rewald, translated from the French by Marguerite Kay, New York: Da Capo Press, 1995, p. 327.)
　(2) Ibid., pp. 122-123. (Ibid., pp. 112-113.)
　(3) Ibid., p. 152. (Ibid., p. 146.)
　(4) Ibid., p. 165. (cf. Ibid., p. 159.)

　This is a revised edition of “New Viewpoint on Art: Cézanne and Steam Railway (5)” published in Nihon Art Journal, September/October, 2012.