Portrait of a Woman

Here, only a few dark lines dashed over a faint chalk sketch and added patches of color define the motif. Like a number of Cézanne’s works from the last years of his life, this painting was left in a seemingly unfinished state. Large areas of untouched white surround the sitting woman, who may be his wife, Hortense Fiquet. In a 1905 letter to Emile Bernard, Cézanne explained why he felt he had to leave parts of the canvas uncovered: "So, old as I am, around seventy years, the sensations colorantes that create light are the cause of abstractions that do not allow me to cover my canvas, nor to pursue the delimitation of objects when their points of contact are subtle, delicate; the result of which is that my image or painting is incomplete." Admiringly, Picasso described how Cézanne had only to touch the canvas and the picture was there.