“Mont Sainte-Victoire and Château Noir” is among the paintings that French artist Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) captured of the mountain he loved near his birthplace in Aix-en-Provence, France. Admiring the indomitable spirit of Cézanne and the beauty of his work, Ikeda Sensei wrote the essay “Mont Sainte-Victoire: A Mountain of Sacred Victory in Provence, Southern France.” Below is an excerpt. It was originally published in the July 30, 2004, World Tribune, p. 8.
The painter stared at the mountain with burning intensity: “Just a little more! I am almost there!” His gaze was so focused that his eyes seemed on fire. The renowned French painter Paul Cézanne had spent days observing Mont Sainte-Victoire—“Mount Sacred Victory”—in the Provence region of southern France.
He was determined to depict the mountain on canvas. It was a daunting challenge. He made dozens of attempts, but he remained unsatisfied. It seemed that he and the mountain were engaged in a desperate struggle.
“I am working doggedly,”[1] Cézanne wrote to an acquaintance. He was over 60 at the time but was still largely unknown as an artist. Even in Paris, few were aware of the real value of his work. In the town in the south of France where he was born, he was regarded as a good-for-nothing. …
Cézanne was uncompromising in his dedication to his art; he is known to have devoted as many as 100 painting sessions to a single still life. Even on the day his beloved mother died, he painted. He had the unyielding firmness of a rock.
Still unrecognized, he returned in his later years to his place of birth, Aix-en-Provence, and began to paint Mont Sainte-Victoire. …
Could he reach the heights he aimed for? Could he scale the peak?
“I consume myself, I kill myself, in order to paint 50 centimeters of canvas. But no matter; that is how it is. I will die painting.”[2]
He was ready to die trying—and having said that, Cézanne had already triumphed. The important thing is to never give up, to continue challenging oneself to the very end. I believe that spirit was itself his victory.
In the fall of 1906, Cézanne was painting outdoors when it began to rain. Making his way back in the rain, he collapsed. A passerby eventually discovered him and carried him home. A week later, the artist closed his passionate eyes for the last time. He was 67. Even on his deathbed, he had tried to paint.
Cézanne was a rock. He had built himself into his own monument, his very own mountain of victory.
But this is not the story of a single individual of genius. We all have our own Mont Sainte- Victoire, our own mountain of sacred victory, and we need to find it and scale its summit.
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