MURA · THE COLLECTION · PAUL CÉZANNE

Mont Sainte-Victoire with a Large Pine

Mont Sainte-Victoire with a Large Pine is an oil painting by Paul Cézanne from about 1887, one of his many views of the mountain east of Aix-en-Provence. It measures 67 by 92 centimetres and belongs to The Courtauld in London (Samuel Courtauld Trust), accession number P.1934.SC.55.

Paul Cézanne · c. 1887 · Oil on canvas · Post-Impressionism · story written 25 September 2026

What you are looking at

A large pine frames the mountain and the valley below, binding the landscape with branching lines. The Courtauld describes cool blues and pinks on the peak against greens and yellows in the valley, the pine branches framing the view, and a railway viaduct and the smoke of a train bringing modern life into the scene. Wikipedia places the viewpoint at Montbriand, near Aix, looking over the valley of the Arc with the bridge of the Aix to Marseille railway line.

How it was painted

Cézanne (1839-1906) lived in Aix for most of his life and painted the mountain from the 1870s until his death in 1906, in about eighty paintings and watercolours. The main viewpoints were near his brother-in-law's property at Bellevue, near the Bibémus quarry and, after 1902, from his studio at Les Lauves. In a letter to Émile Zola of 14 April 1878 he had already called the mountain "What a beautiful motif".

The Courtauld calls this the most monumental and highly finished of three canvases devoted to this particular view, and notes the use of contrasting colour to suggest breadth and expanse. It is one of the very few paintings Cézanne signed after 1880. It was first shown at an exhibition of amateur artists in Aix, where it met with incomprehension, and Cézanne gave it to the poet Joachim Gasquet.

Where it went

The painting belongs to The Courtauld, whose Cézanne holdings are the largest in the United Kingdom, and is held for the Samuel Courtauld Trust. The reproduction on Wikimedia Commons is credited to a subscription art database rather than to the gallery.

Why it is in Mura

It belongs to the Coast & Countryside collection with a verdant mood: the valley in full leaf, held together by the tree in front of it.