Mont Sainte-Victoire with Large Pine, 1887, Paul Cézanne (1839–1906), 26¼in by 36¼in, The Courtauld Gallery
Mr Gompertz says: 'Frankly, I could have picked any number of Cézannes as my favourite painting, but I chose this landscape because it’s a dear old friend I frequently visit at the Courtauld Gallery. I love the way it shimmers with his staccato brushstrokes and sings with his symphonic and melodious greens and pinks.
'It’s a no-holds-barred enquiry into how we see, but, more than that, this is a visual love letter to his home of Aix and a view he could never get enough of, and—through his eyes—neither can I.'
Will Gompertz is the BBC’s Arts Editor.
John McEwan comments: 'In 1886, Cézanne’s banker father died, leaving him free of financial worry. It was just as well: Cézanne didn’t have his first solo show until 1895, the year after publication of the first substantial article on his work.
'This landscape was also first shown in 1895, in his hometown of Aix-en-Provence in an exhibition by local amateur artists. He gave it away as a present to a young admirer, his future memoirist Joachim Gasquet, hence the rare addition of his signature.
'Cézanne always loved the country round Aix. As a schoolboy, he and his best friend, Emile Zola, would take any opportunity, as Zola recalled, to go ‘for endless strolls across the hills’. In summer, they swam; in autumn, they carried guns for hunting, more for the fun of firing than filling a game-bag. ‘The hunting party always finished in the shade of a tree…,’ wrote Zola, ‘lying on our backs… chatting away about our loves’, chiefly poetry.
'The older he got, the more Cézanne treasured Provence, especially those childhood haunts overlooked by Mont Sainte-Victoire—often a larger presence in his paintings, a symbol of constancy, than in reality, lying eight miles from Aix.
'The painter Maurice Dennis, responsible for an early and influential appraisal, wrote: ‘I have never heard an admirer of Cézanne give me a clear and precise reason for his admiration.’ Samuel Courtauld, founder of the Courtauld Gallery collection, had his epiphany when a young First World War-airman friend explained a Cézanne landscape: ‘It makes you go this way, and that way, and then off the deep-end altogether!’'
-
Two quick and easy seasonal asparagus recipes to try this Easter WeekendAsparagus has royal roots — it was once a favourite of Madame de Pompadour.
-
Sip tea and laugh at your neighbours in this seaside Norfolk home with a watchtowerOn Cliff Hill in Gorleston, one home is taller than all the others. It could be yours.
-
'As a child I wanted to snuggle up with the dogs and be part of it': Alexia Robinson chooses her favourite paintingAlexia Robinson, founder of Love British Food, chooses an Edwin Landseer classic.
-
The Pre-Raphaelite painter who swapped 'willowy, nubile women' for stained glass — and created some of the best examples in BritainThe painter Edward Burne-Jones turned from paint to glass for much of his career. James Hughes, director of the Victorian Society, chooses a glass masterpiece by Burne-Jones as his favourite 'painting'.
-
'I can’t look away. I’m captivated': The painter who takes years over each portrait, with the only guarantee being that it won't look like the subjectFor Country Life's My Favourite Painting slot, the writer Emily Howes chooses a work by a daring and challenging artist: Frank Auerbach.
-
My Favourite Painting: Rob HouchenThe actor Rob Houchen chooses a bold and challenging Egon Schiele work.
-
My Favourite Painting: Jeremy Clarkson'That's why this is my favourite painting. Because it invites you to imagine'
-
The chair of the National Gallery names his favourite from among the 2,300 masterpieces — and it will come as a bit of a shockAs the National Gallery turns 200, the chair of its board of trustees, John Booth, chooses his favourite painting.
-
'A wonderful reminder of what the countryside could and should be': The 200-year-old watercolour of a world fast disappearingChristopher Price of the Rare Breed Survival Trust on the bucolic beauty of The Magic Apple Tree by Samuel Palmer, which he nominates as his favourite painting.
-
My favourite painting: Andrew Graham-Dixon'Lesson Number One: it’s the pictures that baffle and tantalise you that stay in the mind forever .'
