In 1839, Paul Cézanne was born in the city of Aix-en-Provence. He was one of the most important early modernist painters. During school, he learned how to paint, but his father insisted that he study law in his home town, so he did. He spent a lot of time in Paris because he was friends with Émile Zola. In 1861, he moved there. After being turned down by the École des Beaux-Arts, he went to the Académie Suisse, where he met Camille Pissarro and met Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, and Edouard Manet. He joined the Impressionists and showed his paintings with them. He went back to Aix-en-Provence in 1879. It took a long time for things to go well. In 1895, Ambroise Vollard, an art dealer, gave him his first one-man show in Paris. In 1903, he showed his work for the first time at the Salon d'Automne. After his death in Aix-en-Provence in 1906, he became well-known all over the world.
