"Cezanne and Us" Exhibition at the Grand Palais

Categories : Exhibition, published on : 9/27/26

The legacy of the father of modern art

This autumn, Paris takes a fresh look at Cézanne. Until 17 January 2027, the Grand Palais presents Cézanne and Us, an exhibition that is less about the man than about what artists made of him. Nearly 180 works, around 70 of them by Paul Cézanne, are set in dialogue with pieces by Gauguin, Matisse, Picasso, Mondrian, Joan Mitchell, Bridget Riley and Peter Doig.

A first-of-its-kind exhibition on Cézanne's legacy

Many exhibitions have traced Cézanne's career. This one tells a twofold story: the painter's decisive influence on 20th-century artists and that of the creators who claimed him as a master, challenged him, or reinvented him. Lineages, appropriations, aesthetic tensions: the exhibition embraces a complex and varied history.

From Père Tanguy to the Salon d'Automne: the birth of a myth

It all begins in the late 1880s. Cézanne has stopped exhibiting, but a few artists and collectors discover his canvases in Père Tanguy's shop. They find in them a formal radicalism that feeds their search for a "pure" art, already turning towards abstraction.

Recognition then comes in stages:

the first solo exhibitions organised by the art dealer Ambroise Vollard;
major museum shows, in France and then internationally;
posthumous retrospectives, including the one at the 1907 Salon d'Automne.

The hang alternates between recreations of historic displays and face-to-face pairings of works, with bolder aesthetic choices.

From Matisse to Peter Doig: a touchstone for the avant-gardes

For the 20th-century avant-gardes, Cézanne became a reference point. His idea that art is a harmony parallel to nature offered a way of thinking about the relationship between painting and reality. The exhibition follows this thread from lyrical abstraction to geometric abstraction, and on to "hard edge" painting. Whether artists sought to extend his legacy or break free of it, Cézanne remains a reference: claimed, reinterpreted and always debated.

In the age of postmodernism, his status as the "father of modern art" is itself being questioned. The exhibition does not settle the matter: it invites us to look at Cézanne through the successive gazes he has inspired, up to our own.

Practical information

Dates: 23 September 2026 to 17 January 2027
Venue: Grand Palais, avenue du Général Eisenhower, Paris 8th (galleries 3 and 4)
Opening hours: every day except Monday, 10am to 7.30pm, and until 10pm on Fridays.

Why go?

This is an unmissable exhibition because it shows how a body of work continues to have an impact long after its time. For art lovers and the simply curious alike, it is a chance to reread a classic through those who followed him. It is one of the cultural highlights of Paris this autumn.

Don't forget to tell the team at Hôtel FABRIC about your experience. Our front desk team is at your disposal to inform and advise you during your stay in the capital.