Every so often there is a flurry of indignant Letters to the Editor in the national press deploring the overworked or incorrect use of certain words and phrases in the media, public announcements and daily talk. Overused words, current for a while, generally disappear, to be overtaken by equally irritating replacements. Incorrect usage has a habit of sticking, sometimes absorbed into the language. We can still hear and see ‘Five items or less’ at the supermarket checkout; that a train is reaching its ‘final destination’ (on Amtrack this is ‘your last and final stop’); that we could be the lucky recipient of a ‘free gift’ which would be an ‘added bonus’; and someone’s masterly novel or performance is ‘masterful’ (unfortunately, an increasingly blurred distinction).

Considering his stature and significance, it is surprising that Cézanne has not been the subject of a major biography for more than forty years. Admittedly, he was well served with these in the middle years of the last century, when Gerstle Mack, John Rewald, Henri Perruchot and Jack Lindsay provided comprehensive accounts of the artist’s life based on Cézanne’s correspondence, the historical evidence, and the many eulogies and testimonies written by his acolytes and followers, especially during the last decade of his career.