The Paris AtlasCharting the artists, works, and places worth returning to.

Apartment · Saint-Victor (5th) · 5e arrondissement

45 rue Jussieu

The buildingStill standing
Getting inOutside only
What's there nowSomeone else

Private, near the Jardin des Plantes.

Paul Cézanne's Left Bank address in 1872 — the year his son Paul was born, and the year he went out to Pontoise to work beside Camille Pissarro, which changed his painting completely.

Address
45 rue Jussieu, 75005 Paris
Years
Cézanne's address in 1872, the year his son was born

The place, briefly

Paul Cézanne was at 45 rue Jussieu in 1872, near the Jardin des Plantes. His son Paul was born that January, to Hortense Fiquet, and still concealed from his father.

It is the hinge year. That same year he took the family out to Pontoise, where Camille Pissarro was working, and stayed in the region on and off until 1874. What happened there is the single most important thing in his development: Pissarro got him painting outdoors, made him abandon the palette knife and the black, and taught him to build a picture out of small separate touches of colour.

Cézanne was nine years younger and later described himself as Pissarro's pupil. The two set up side by side in front of the same motifs, and the canvases from those months are the point where the dark, thickly loaded early work stops and the painter everyone means by his name begins.

The building is private and carries nothing to say any of this.

Key facts

When
1872
That year
His son Paul was born, still hidden from his father
What changed
He went to Pontoise to work beside Camille Pissarro
The result
Outdoor work, a lighter palette, and the end of the palette-knife manner
Street-name trap
It is the rue Jussieu; 'rue de Jussieu' misdirects geocoders entirely
Access
Private — exterior only

Timeline

  1. 1872

    Cézanne is at 45 rue Jussieu; his son Paul is born in January.

  2. 1872–1874

    He works alongside Pissarro at Pontoise and Auvers.

  3. 1874

    He exhibits in the first Impressionist exhibition.

On the map

Questions before you go

How did Pissarro change Cézanne's painting?

He took him outdoors, moved him off the palette knife and away from black, and taught him to build pictures from small separate touches of colour. Cézanne later called himself Pissarro's pupil.

People who knew this place

Illustrated portrait of Paul Cézanne

Paul Cézanne

French · Painter

Cezanne's address in 1872, the year his son Paul was born and the year he went out to Pontoise to work beside Camille Pissarro, which transformed his painting.

Within walking distance

The Friday Letter

Paris, one address at a time.

The cafés, studios, and walk-up flats where the work was made — one story from the map in every letter.

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