Self Portrait in a Straw Hat

Paul Cézanne, 1878–79 · Gallery 518 · Floor 5

Alright, let’s start with the straw hat. Dark band. Tipped back a little. Big dark beard under it. Eyes off to the side. That’s Paul Cézanne. Picasso and Matisse both supposedly called him “the father of us all.” So, speaking of fathers… it’s 1878, he’s thirty-nine, and he’s still on an allowance from his. Dad’s a banker. His name’s literally on a bank in the south of France. But… Paul has this small secret… just a… another family. With a lady named Hortense, and a son. Also Paul. Let’s call him little Paul. He’s six. They’re in Marseille. He’s been keeping that little secret from Dad. Then a collector friend writes to Cézanne. Mentions “Madame Cézanne and little Paul.” His father opens the letter first. So… now Dad knows. And suddenly the money gets tight. Cézanne now only gets a hundred francs a month. That’s half what his father had promised. So he hits up his old school friend, the writer Émile Zola. Sixty francs a month, straight to Hortense. He calls it his “monthly prayer.” Then unexpectedly in September, Dad just hands over three hundred francs. Paul writes Zola, “Unheard of.” Then adds, he thinks Dad’s got a crush on the maid. Anyway, come back to the painting. Those big swirls behind his head. It’s wallpaper. The same pattern appears behind his mother and sister in a painting from about eight years earlier. At the family house. So that’s probably where he’s painted this. Under Dad’s roof. Still needing Dad’s money. Trying to keep his own family out of the conversation. And one last thing about Dad. Before the bank, he made hats. Had a shop on the main street in Aix. So… look at what his son put on.

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