This is a gem of a book, with an insightful, sometimes poetic, always profound text, which analyses almost every major painting by Paul Cézanne. The illustrations are numerous and almost all in color. Now then, why 4 stars instead of 5? First because the current owners of the works are no longer the ones indicated in the book, which has not been updated (many paintings listed in private collections are nowadays in museums) and second because the quality of the illustrations leaves a lot to be desired, most of the works appearing flattened out by the rather mediocre printing process (the book was first published in 1952 and the new edition could have done a better job in this respect). Also, the famous painting "Madame Cézanne in a red Armchair", marvelously described by Rilke in his letters to his wife, is inexplicably missing from Schapiro's selection.
Yet, those few notable drawbacks should not keep Cézanne's lovers from appreciating this great study of the father of modern art.