The painting The Bay of Marseille, seen from L'Estaque (1885), by Paul Cezanne is exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago Illinois. This two-dimensional oil on canvas measures 30" x 40". It is part of a series of paintings depicting a bay in Marseille, a small village in the south of France. Using an elevated vantage point, Cézanne positions the image so that the viewer looks down on the village rooftops. Behind the buildings in the foreground lies a large body of water with hills in the distance. Cézanne retreated to the Bay of Marseille several times throughout his life, inspiring him to create this series of paintings. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The image is divided into four zones; the architecture in the foreground, with the red and brown roofs. The deep blue body of water taking up most of the central space, lending a flatness to the image, the distant mountains and sky above. Mountains softened by their wavy appearance and the use of light. Cezanne describes how the landscape configuration and colors here fascinated him, saying: “It is like playing cards with its simple shapes and colors. Red roofs on the blue sea… the sun is so fantastic here that it seems to me that objects stand out not only in black and white but also in blue, red, brown and purple. ”Roger Fry was an English painter and critic who studied Cézanne's work and who rejected prevailing critical modes. He believed that a painting was simply a painting and that the key to Cézanne's work was the form, not the subject; For Fry, form should be the primary expressive element of all art. Cezanne's works come close to that formal expression, with the use of tone and line to create a sense of structure throughout his compositions. Cezanne played with the idea that form could be achieved through color. Paint with heavy layers and observe that there are no contour lines when looking at nature. Cezanne creates the outline with a bluish gray tone of paint, spreading it so that the paint interacts with the surrounding space giving it breadth. His expressive brushstrokes also create a vibrant effect within his contour line, which appears slightly separated from the edge of his shapes. With this effect the objects exude a feeling of weight, thus giving the piece an impressive solidarity. Fry also highlights how the use of simplicity in structure and objects creates an understandable image whilst being able to communicate a vivid sense of life. Maurice Merleau-Ponty, being a philosopher, takes a different approach to applying Cezanne. In his article Cézanne Doubt, Merleau-Ponty discusses how our sensations tend to produce spontaneous and chaotic appearances and how our brains are wired to organize them into a whole. He believes that Cezanne captures the very process of "being" before it is contaminated by the prejudices and preconceived ideas of our mind. Merleau-Ponty experiences Cezanne as a way to make sense of the world; Cézanne's work for him reflects on the phenomenon of experience, on how confusing and vibrant appearances are transferred. Cezanne's work used color and form to convey a more "lived perspective" nature of human experience. Merleau-Ponty also notes how Cezanne's use of local tones creates contrast between objects and how these colors bring out a more natural way of how we perceive nature. The appearance of complementary tones intensifies each other; this effect can be seen in the Bay of Marseille, with the use of red-brown and blue-green contrast. It's difficult.