Pont de Maincy
A small stone-and-timber footbridge over the river Almont at Maincy, near Melun — an early Cézanne of great gravity.
footbridge over the Almont at Maincy
The painting shows a real, identified place that you can find today. The exact spot the artist worked from is not necessarily known.
Pont de Maincy — at a glance
- Artist
- Paul Cézanne (1839–1906)
- Year
- c. 1879
- Movement
- Post-Impressionism
- Place
- The river Almont at Maincy, near Melun, France
- Viewpoint
- A small footbridge over the Almont — the wooded, watery character survives; the exact bridge is not marked
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- c. 58 × 72 cm
- Now at
- Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Overview
The Bridge at Maincy is one of the most admired of Paul Cézanne's early landscapes, painted about 1879. It shows a modest footbridge — stone abutments, timber deck and rail — spanning a slow green branch of the river Almont, deep in trees, its structure and the foliage doubled in the still water. It is oil on canvas, about 58 by 72 cm, and it hangs in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris.
Where was Pont de Maincy painted?
Scholarship Maincy is a village on the small river Almont, near Melun and the château of Vaux-le-Vicomte, about 45 km south-east of Paris. Cézanne stayed nearby at Melun in 1879–80. The bridge in the picture is one of the little watercourse crossings in the wooded, watery ground around the village; the general character of the place survives, but the exact bridge is not marked or securely identified today. It is a real spot on a real river rather than a famous, signposted viewpoint.
How we know
- Cézanne's real footbridge at Maincy; 'Almont' is the river.
What is in the painting?
The bridge crosses the middle of the canvas, its deck and pale rail catching light, the dark stone abutments planted in the bank. Trees rise close on both sides and lean over; the water below is a deep still green, holding the reflection of bridge and leaves. There is no figure and no sky to speak of — a closed, green, quiet space.
Look closely
The footbridge
Stone abutments, a timber deck and a pale rail cross the still green water.
The doubled reflection
Bridge and leaning trees are held almost exactly in the deep green water below.
The constructive touch
Small parallel strokes model stone, foliage and water alike — early ‘architectural’ Cézanne.
The closed space
Trees crowd both banks; there is no sky and no figure — a quiet green box.
Analysis
Composition and technique
A horizontal bridge crossing a vertical screen of trees, everything built from firm, parallel, constructive strokes.
Scholarship Cézanne locks the bridge, the trunks and their reflections into a tight geometric web, and paints the whole scene in his emerging ‘constructive’ touch — small parallel strokes that model foliage, stone and water alike. The result is solid and architectural despite the soft subject.
History & provenance
The painting entered the French national collections in 1955 and hangs in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris.
Sources
- Musée d'Orsay, Paris — collection entry for Paul Cézanne, ‘Le Pont de Maincy’ (c. 1879; oil on canvas, c. 58 × 72 cm)
- John Rewald, ‘The Paintings of Paul Cézanne: A Catalogue Raisonné’
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