Paul Cézanne (1839 - 1906) painted almost 200 portra its, including twenty - six of himself and twenty - nine of his wife . This book presents twenty - four 'highlights' from a major international exhibition that explores the portraiture of this remarkable artist, whom both Matisse and Picasso called 'the father of us all'. In bringing together a broad selection of Cézanne's portraits, the book reveal s arguably the most personal , and therefore most human, aspect of his art, and one that has hitherto received surprisingly little attention. They range from the artist 's earliest surviving self - portrait , dating from the 1860s, through portraits of his uncle Dominique, his wife Hortense, his son Paul and a range of friends and associates, to his final portrait of Vallier, the gardener at his hou se near Aix - en - Provence, made shortly before the artist's death in 1906. The art historian Mary Tompkins Lewis , author of Cézanne : Art and Ideas (200 0 ) and Cézanne's Early Imagery ( 1989 ) , contributes an illuminating introductory essay on the artist and his portraiture for a genera l readership. Also included is an illustrated chronology of Cézanne's life and work .