Sister arts or sibling rivalry? Cézanne and the logic of the senses

Abstract Ambroise Vollard's Paul Cezanne, published in Paris in 1914, is one of a number of what might loosely be called ‘biographies’ of those key painters whose work the dealer sold. It is like the others: a collection of what reads like fantastic tales by a self-promoting businessman who wanted to increase the value of his stock. Yet right at its heart lies a story that serves as a metaphor for the relationship between word and image, raises questions about the ekphrastic exegeses of non-narrative painting, and also throws some light on Cezanne's so-called mamere couillarde or ‘spunky style’ of the 1860s.