art, but it portends the main elements of his mature style: shapes moulded by colour, dark outlines and the breaking down of traditional perspective. The works of C┼╜zanneΓÇÖs youth, even though they are sometimes thought of as romantic, are characterized by the vigorous use of light. A great admirer of Delacroix, C┼╜zanne used chiaroscuro to convey the drama of his subject matter. But he quickly abandoned this technique, and, after the 1870s, he gradually gave up the thick, vigorously applied impasto, which he, rather humorously, called ΓÇÿcouillardeΓÇÖ (ΓÇÿballsyΓÇÖ). Little by little he moved away from painting the subjects that particularly appealed to him ΓÇô images of orgies, murders and rapes ΓÇô and began to work on depicting, in an as yet ill-defined way, something beyond the mere illustration of well-worn subjects.
