The poet
Joachim Gasquett tells us that this is a portrait of an ex-nun, who lost her
faith and "escaped" from her convent. Gasquett found her wandering
aimlessly and provided shelter for her. In Cézanne's portrait, she
looks back upon a life that must have had significant pain and inner
torment. And as she looks forward, she knows the days remaining to her
are dwindling rapidly. So it is appropriate that the colors are
somber.
But when you look at this woman,
do you feel that all is regret and disillusionment? I don't. Her
face and posture show that she is deep in contemplation, but not in despair.
And that raised eyebrow indicates a glimmer of hope. Her face seems to
glow with it.
The only other bright spot in the
painting is her hands, where we see the rosary and understand that she has
returned to the sustaining faith that first brought her to the convent.
Even if you are not Catholic, do you not rejoice to know that she has turned
back to Christ, who offers her hope at the end of her life, despite all of
her brokenness?
This portrait may also have been an
expression of hope to the artist, who became a devout Christian late in his
life. I don't think Cézanne had to interview this woman
extensively to know just the right posture to use for the
portrait, or the precise expression for her face. He knew from inside
his own heart what it means when despair of the past meets with the
startling recognition of hope in spite of it all. In some respects,
this is a self-portrait.
Remarkably, this painting was nearly
lost. Some time after Cézanne's
death, it was found on a floor, with a
pipe dripping water onto it. But the painting was rescued and today
hangs in one of the world's greatest art museums.
Perhaps you have already realized
that this one painting embodies three separate stories with a single theme:
redemption. The painting was mercifully redeemed from
destruction by someone who valued it. Cézanne himself was redeemed
when he became a Christian, and has shown us his own redemption in the
portrait of this woman. And of course, the old woman is shown in the
very moment of redemption, when her past and her future offer nothing but
despair, yet she discovers hope in the revival of the faith she had once
rejected.
Redemption is also the primary theme
of the Bible. In Genesis, God created us in love and gave us free will
that we used to reject Him. The rest of the Bible is the story of
God's attempts to bring us back into relationship with Him, until He finally
does so for all who will accept it by the death and resurrection of His Son.
In Jesus, God takes each of our broken, futile lives and transforms them
into lives with meaning and hope for eternal glory.
