The study addresses the interpretation of the French painter Paul Cézanne's art in the thinking of Maurice Merleau-Ponty in 1945. The interpretation is mostly seen as a part of Merleau-Ponty's argumentation of the phenomenology of perception, but the method itself that Merleau-Ponty used to formulate the meaning of Cézanne's art is neglected.
The study endeavors to connect this overlooked aspect of Merleau-Ponty's thinking with the art-historical interpretation of Cézanne's work during the 1930s, combining Merleau-Ponty's argument with the interpretation of Cézanne's work articulated by the Viennese art historian Fritz Novotny.