PAUL CEZANNE, who died in 1906, cast a long shadow across 20th-century art. Pablo Picasso, who, with Georges Braque, invented cubism, called him “my one and only master”. Henri Matisse, Picasso’s rival(rival) for supreme(supreme) artist of the modern period, described him as “a sort of god of painting”.

　　Critics and scholars may disagree about pinpointing the first stirrings of modern art, but few deny Cézanne’s pivotal role as midwife(这句话很有意思~) His fracturing of form and flattening of space, especially evident(好词啊好词) in his landscapes and still lifes, laid the foundation for cubism, the revolutionary movement that planted radical ideas firmly in the minds of young painters(plant用地很好~) in Europe and America.

　　Cézanne’s influence was strongest during the generation after he died, but it has proved remarkably persistent. Only now, a century later, when electronic media such as photography and video have wrested control of the vanguard from painting, is Cézanne’s shadow beginning to fade.(复杂的长句但不是很难，插入语用得恰到好处~only用地也很好)

　　However, until mid-May he continues to display his authority at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which has mounted an enchanting exhibition designed to validate the claims of Picasso, Matisse and 14 other legatees whose art has been shaped by Cézanne’s example.