Mont Sainte Victoire

Mont Saint Victoire is the mountain near Aix-en-Provence that Paul Cézanne painted over and over.  Sort of like Mount San Cayetano in Fillmore that we photograph over and over.  When you see a mountain looming up before you every day of your life, it becomes a fixture.  San Cayetano is taller at 4212 feet compared to Sainte Victoire at 3317 feet.

Cézanne was born and died in Aix-en-Provence and spent most of his life there.  Emile Zola did convince him to move to Paris for a while but he eventually returned to the south.  You can visit his studio in Aix although currently it is closed until spring of 2025 for renovations.  Hopefully it will be open by April of 2026.

There is also his family home, a mansion (afterall his father was a banker), that you can visit on a guided tour but apparently it is closed for renovations as well.  Perhaps because it is still winter?  Another reason to wait until spring to visit Europe.

If you want to see more paintings of Sainte Victoire by Cézanne, here’s a collection of them for you.