French painter, with Gauguin and Van Gogh the greatest of the Post-Impressionists and a key figure in the development of 20th century art. He was born at Aix-en-Provence, son of a hat dealer who became a prosperous banker, and his financial security enabled him to survive the indifference to his work that lasted until the final decade of his life. There are works in many major museums, with particularly fine collections in, for examples, the Courtauld Institute Galleries, London, the Musée d'Orsay, Paris, and the Barnes Foundation, Merion, Pennsylvania. His studio in Aix is now a Cézanne museum, reconstructed as it was at the time of his death and displaying personal mementoes such as his hat and clay pipe.
