Paul Cezanne's return to grace in Aix-en-Provence, his hometown which had long shunned him

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The plot began with a "brushstroke," a trace of old painting attributed to Paul Cezanne—the painter's family is fighting to remove the acute accent from the name Cezanne—found on a wall of the family's country house in Aix-en-Provence. In the summer of 2023, while the Jas de Bouffan, recently purchased by the municipality, was undergoing restoration, additional surveys were commissioned. A few weeks later, a previously secret painting appeared under the conservators' scalpels. Or rather, a large fragment measuring 5 square meters, a veiled sky, then banners, boat masts, buildings on either side. The heart of the composition is absent, but it is named for what it represents: "The Port Entrance."

The major discovery will be presented this summer to the people of Aix and the hundreds of thousands of visitors expected, on the occasion of the launch of the year "Cezanne at home", which does not mark any anniversary but marks the painter's return to grace in his hometown. In addition to the Jas de Bouffan, the town hall has restored the Lauves studio, in which Paul Cezanne painted his last canvases until his death in 1906, and rehabilitated the quarries...

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