C┼╜zanne, Hortense and their one-year-old son spent the whole of 1873 at Auvers-sur-Oise, a small village in the Ile-de-France. While they were there, C┼╜zanne again met Dr Gachet, who was a friend and collector of the Impressionists as well as an old acquaintance of C┼╜zanneΓÇÖs father. Dr Gachet introduced C┼╜zanne to the art of etching. The village also had the advantage of being close to Pontoise, the home of ΓÇÿthe humble and colossal PissarroΓÇÖ, with whom C┼╜zanne painted. In the surrounding countryside he painted both panoramic views and village scenes. He lightened the tonal range of his palette but had not yet entirely given up the technique, typical of his first period, of modelling the subject directly in wet paint. Towards the end of his life he explained this to Maurice Denis: ΓÇÿIt is because I cannot render my feelings at the first attempt, so I add on paint; then I add more. When I start I always try to paint with solid paint like Manet, modelling it with a brush.ΓÇÖ The impasto of The House of the Hanged Man shows this laborious process of completing a composition. The same clotted rendering can also be found in the still lifes of this period.
Th┼╜odore Duret related that the gloomy name given to the house,
