The Strangled woman

Before he discovered the revolutionary works of Courbet and Manet, the young painter from Aix submitted to a strict apprenticeship. It was an especially difficult period for him, partly because, for the first few months that he was in Paris, he was lonely and unknown and partly because he had chosen a sombre palette – paints for ‘death and mourning’, as Lawrence Gowing called it. His studies from life made his fellow students at the Atelier Suisse laugh, and they kept him out of their societies.
	In 1863, accompanied by Zola, he visited the Salon des RefusŽs and saw the works of the avant-garde artists whose works were not admitted to the Salon. He was particularly struck by a large canvas by Manet (now known as Le DŽjeuner sur l’herbe) showing people in contemporary dress having a picnic on the grass, a work that parodied contemporary art practices. Manet’s reworking of traditional themes inspired CŽzanne to attempt several compositions with figures in landscapes, including his own version of ‘luncheon on the grass’, pastoral scenes, the temptation of St Anthony and bathers. Manet was his first master, but CŽzanne also admired Daumier, Delacroix and Courbet. Although he was wary of