When Cezanne comes to visit the Musée Granet
Cezanne au Jas de Bouffan’ exhibition at the Musée Granet: immersion in the secret workshop of a master painter
In Aix-en-Provence, 2025 will be a year to remember. A year in which the city pays tribute to its most discreet and revolutionary genius: Paul Cezanne. Through a series of exceptional cultural events, the whole of the artist’s legacy will be brought to life in the narrow streets, hills and country houses of the city. And at the heart of this celebration, one exhibition stands out like a jewel: Cezanne au Jas de Bouffan, on show from 28 June to 12 October 2025 at the Musée Granet.
A place, a painter, a story
Jas de Bouffan was not just a house. For Paul Cezanne, it was a world. This Aix country house, acquired by his father in 1859, became a veritable creative laboratory for almost 40 years. Cezanne lived there, worked there, doubted there, painted there. The walls of the bastide, the trees in the park, the changing light of the South… everything became subject, everything became motif.
The Cezanne at Jas de Bouffan exhibition explores this unique relationship between a man and a place. Through more than a hundred works – oils, watercolours and drawings – it offers a deeply moving insight into the painter’s intimate world. For the first time, the works produced between 1860 and 1899 at the bastide are brought together in a thematic tour that is as rigorous as it is poetic.
An exceptional exhibition at Musée Granet
A scenography at the service of intimacy
As soon as they enter the rooms of the Musée Granet, visitors are invited to forget dates and legends and enter the eye of the painter. Thanks to a refined scenography bathed in natural light, the tour recreates the atmosphere of Jas de Bouffan. Here, a period salon. Here, a window opening onto the park’s poplars. The exhibition doesn’t tell the story: it makes you feel.
The care taken to enhance the visitor’s experience is matched by the works on display. They come from the world’s greatest museums: Paris, New York, Tokyo, London and, of course, Aix. Exceptional loans have been brought together for this exhibition, the fruit of an international collaboration led by Bruno Ely, Director of the Musée Granet, and Denis Coutagne, President of the Société Paul Cezanne.
Masterpieces you’ve never seen before
Some paintings are well known. But here, in this context, they take on a whole new dimension. Such is the case with the famous Joueurs de cartes, painted between 1890 and 1895. Their silence is rooted in the silence of the Jas. Their light, in that which filtered through the shutters of the bastide.
Other major works include :
- Les Quatre Saisons (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter): an ode to nature and the passing of time,
- Le Baigneur au rocher, the quiet power of a body in symbiosis with the landscape,
- Nature morte aux cerises et aux pêches, a vibrant dialogue between form and colour,
- Baigneuses, a motif dear to the artist, almost mystical here,
- Portrait de l’artiste au fond rose, one of Cezanne’s most touching self-portraits,
- Le Jeu de cache-cache d’après Lancret, a rare work full of mischief.
Through these paintings, the exhibition reveals the evolution of Cezanne’s view of this place where he lived and created. From the experimental enthusiasm of his early works to the refined geometry of his later ones, a whole world takes shape.
Exploring the major themes of his art
Jas de Bouffan was much more than a setting. It inspired the major themes in Cezanne’s work:
- The Provençal landscape, structured by light and mass,
- Still life, a laboratory of composition and balance,
- The human figure, often frozen, silent and timeless.
The exhibition shows how these themes, recurring but never static, originated in this house. The Jas thus becomes the prism through which we can read Cezanne’s stylistic development.
The Granet Museum: a showcase of excellence in the heart of Aix
A leading cultural institution
Located on the Place Saint-Jean de Malte, the Musée Granet is one of the finest provincial museums in France. Housed in a former 17th-century priory, it offers a majestic setting for its collections, which range from Antiquity to contemporary art.
But the museum is best known for its Cezanne collection. This includes a synthetic version of Les Grandes Baigneuses, a veritable manifesto by the artist. For several decades now, the Musée Granet has been working to raise the profile of the painter and his legacy in the town of his birth.
The Cezanne exhibition at Jas de Bouffan is without doubt one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken by the institution.
Practical information
📍 Address: Place Saint Jean de Malte, 13100 Aix-en-Provence
🕒 Opening times: Every day from 9am to 7pm (Thursday night until 10pm)
💶 Admission: Full price €18 / Reduced rate €16
🎟️ Bookings: Online ticketing available – guided tours in French and English
Villa Amara: the ideal address for experiencing Cezanne Year
How about turning this artistic experience into a moment of pure indulgence? Villa Amara, a prestigious private mansion just 10 minutes’ walk from the Musée Granet, opens its doors to you in a setting of greenery and refinement, at 19 cours des Arts et Métiers.
A haven of peace just a stone’s throw from the historic centre
Sheltered from the hustle and bustle, but just a stone’s throw from everything, Villa Amara offers a tailor-made stay for art and culture lovers. Its elegant suites, tree-lined garden and proximity to the iconic sites of Cezanne Year make it an ideal base from which to explore the city.
- The villa is within easy walking distance of :
- The Granet museum (10 min),
- The Pavillon de Vendôme (15 min),
- L’atelier des Lauves (25 min),
- Le Jas de Bouffan (8 min by car or 15 min by bike).
At Villa Amara, you’ll be immersed in Cezanne right where you stay.
Cezanne: a fresh look at an immortal painter
The Cezanne exhibition at the Jas de Bouffan is much more than a retrospective. It’s an invitation to reconsider the work of a man often perceived as distant, almost austere. Here, on the contrary, we discover a Cezanne who was intimate, rooted and vibrant. A painter deeply attached to his land, his home, his light.
The Musée Granet has succeeded in making the invisible visible: the painter’s hesitations, his impulses, his silences. It offers us a unique opportunity to enter the master’s secret studio, and to understand how, starting from a single place, Cezanne built up a universal body of work.
