Madame Cézanne in a Yellow Chair

What you see

Hortense, the painter’s wife, sits in a high-backed yellow armchair printed with leaves. She wears a dark red dress with a large bow at the collar, and her hands are clasped in her lap. Her hair is parted in the middle and pulled back. The chair seems slightly tilted behind her, and a dark band crosses the wall at shoulder height.

Three colors organize the picture: the red of the dress, the yellow of the chair and the gray-blue of the wall. The dress is built from parallel strokes of reds, pinks and violets. Don’t miss the blue outline around the hands and face, and for the leaf pattern of the chair on the left.